Meaning & readings
jurisdiction, dominion, territory, fief, reign
Origin
This character combines a sound hint on the left with a meaning classifier on the right. The right component, 頁, is a picture of a head or face and classifies characters related to the head, face, or leadership. The left component, 令, provides a sound hint for pronunciation (リョウ). Together, the character suggests the idea of leadership or command over a territory — you might think of a ruler's domain or the jurisdiction under someone's authority. The specific focus on "head" hints at the person in charge, while the overall meaning developed to mean territory, dominion, or the area under someone's reign.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 令
- 頁
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 14
- Kangxi radical
- 181
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #138 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+09818