Meaning & readings
surpass, cross over, move to, exceed, Vietnam
Origin
The character 越 combines the radical 走, which means "run" or "move," with 戉, a component that provides a sound hint for pronunciation. The radical suggests the idea of motion or moving forward, which connects to the character's meanings of crossing over, surpassing, or moving to a new place. The second component doesn't contribute meaning but instead guides how the character should be pronounced. Together, these parts create a character that captures the sense of actively moving past or beyond something.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 走
- 戉
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 越す こす to cross over (e.g. mountain); to go across
- 越境 えっきょう crossing a border (illegally); border violation
- 越権 えっけん going beyond authority; unauthorized
- 越冬 えっとう passing the winter; hibernation
- 越年 えつねん seeing the old year out; greeting the New Year
- 上越 じょうえつ area on Japan Sea side of Japan, including Niigata
- 卓越 たくえつ preeminence; excellence
- 超越 ちょうえつ transcendence; transcendency
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 156
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #897 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+08D8A