Origin

This character combines the metal radical 金 on the left, which signals that the kanji refers to something made of metal, with a sound-hint component on the right that suggests the pronunciation. The right side helps readers roughly sound out the character. Together, the metal classifier and the sound component form a character that visually and meaningfully points to a chain—something made of metal links that bind things together or restrict movement, which is why the kanji can also mean connection or to lock something up.

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