Meaning & readings
ward off, defend, protect, resist
Origin
The character 防 combines a radical on the left that relates to walls or barriers with a sound component on the right that hints at the pronunciation. The left part suggests the idea of a protective structure or boundary, while the right part (方) is included mainly to indicate how the character should be pronounced rather than to add meaning. Together, these elements create a character that visually suggests building a defensive barrier, matching its meaning of protection and defense.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- ⻖
- 方
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 攻防 こうぼう offense and defense; offence and defence
- 国防 こくぼう national defence; national defense
- 砂防 さぼう erosion control
- 消防 しょうぼう fire fighting
- 堤防 ていぼう bank; weir
- 防ぐ ふせぐ to defend against; to protect against
- 防衛 ぼうえい defense; defence
- 防疫 ぼうえき communicable disease control (e.g. by quarantine, disinfection, etc.); prevention of epidemics
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 170
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #331 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+09632