字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

admonish, commandment

On’yomi ケイ
Kun’yomi いまし.める

Origin

The character 警 combines the sound component 敬, which indicates its pronunciation, with 言 meaning "words" or "speech" at the bottom. Since the character is about admonishment and commands, the 言 component makes sense—warnings and commandments are things that are spoken or communicated. The top part 敬 doesn't contribute a meaning here; it mainly tells you roughly how to pronounce the character. Together, these parts create a character that represents the idea of words meant to warn, correct, or command someone.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

警 19 strokes

Components

  • 敬 sound hint top
  • 言 radical bottom

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 警戒 けいかい vigilance; caution
  • 警官 けいかん police officer; policeman
  • 警護 けいご bodyguard; escort
  • 警告 けいこく warning; caution
  • 警察 けいさつ police
  • 警視 けいし police superintendent
  • 警鐘 けいしょう alarm bell; fire bell
  • 警笛 けいてき horn; alarm

Related kanji

Same sound component 敬
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
19
Kangxi radical
149
Grade
Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#366 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+08B66