Meaning & readings

wicked, injustice, wrong

On’yomi ジャ
Kun’yomi よこし.ま

Origin

This character combines a sound hint with a location marker. The left component, (fang or tusk), provides a rough pronunciation guide — it sounds like "ガ" which is similar to the character's "ジャ" reading. The right component is a radical meaning "town" or "place," which classifies this as a word about society or human affairs. Together, the character suggests something twisted or wrong within society, capturing the sense of wickedness or injustice that the character conveys.

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

8 strokes

Components

  • sound hint left
  • radical right

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

Common words

  • 邪道 じゃどう improper way (of doing); wrong way
  • 邪魔 じゃま hindrance; obstacle
  • 風邪 かぜ (common) cold; influenza
  • 無邪気 むじゃき innocent; childlike
  • 風邪薬 かぜぐすり remedy for a cold; cold medicine
  • 風邪をひく かぜをひく to catch a cold
  • お邪魔します おじゃまします please excuse the intrusion; I'm coming in

Reference

Strokes
8
Kangxi radical
163
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1612 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+090AA