Meaning & readings

overdo, exceed, go beyond, error

On’yomi
Kun’yomi す.ぎる、す.ごす、あやま.ち、あやま.つ、よぎ.る、よ.ぎる

Origin

This character combines a walking radical on the left, which shows the basic idea of movement, with a sound component on the right that hints at the character's pronunciation. The walking element suggests the physical act of going or passing, while the sound component helps indicate how the character should be read. Over time, the meaning expanded from simply "to pass by or go beyond" to include the broader sense of exceeding a limit or going too far, which is why it also means "error" or "mistake"—when you go beyond what is proper, you've made an error.

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

12 strokes

Components

  • sound hint nyoc
  • radical bottom-left wrap

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

Common words

  • 一過 いっか passing (e.g. of a typhoon); going past
  • 過ぎ すぎ past; after
  • 過ち あやまち fault; error
  • 過去 かこ the past; bygone days
  • 過激 かげき extreme (measure, idea, etc.); radical
  • 過言 かごん exaggeration; overstatement
  • 過失 かしつ accident (caused by negligence); error
  • 過剰 かじょう excess; surplus

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
162
Grade
Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#285 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+0904E