Meaning & readings

drunk, feel sick, poisoned, elated, spellbound

On’yomi スイ
Kun’yomi よ.う、よ.い、よ
Nanori よい

Origin

This character combines the radical 酉, which represents alcohol or fermented drinks, with 卆 on the right side, which provides a sound hint for how the character is pronounced. The meaning of "drunk" comes directly from the alcohol radical—when you consume alcohol, you become intoxicated. The other meanings like "feel sick" or "elated" extend naturally from the state of drunkenness. The right component doesn't contribute to the meaning itself, but rather tells readers roughly how to pronounce the character in Chinese and Japanese.

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

11 strokes

Components

  • radical left
  • sound hint right

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

Common words

  • 心酔 しんすい adoration; admiration
  • 酔う よう to get drunk; to become intoxicated
  • 泥酔 でいすい being dead drunk; drunken stupor
  • 陶酔 とうすい intoxication
  • 麻酔 ますい anaesthesia; anesthesia
  • 酔い よい drunkenness; intoxication
  • 船酔い ふなよい seasickness
  • 酔っ払い よっぱらい drunk person; (a) drunk

Reference

Strokes
11
Kangxi radical
164
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1640 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+09154