Meaning & readings
eat, food
On’yomi ショク、ジキ
Kun’yomi く.う、く.らう、た.べる、は.む
Nanori ぐい
Origin
This character appears to show a person (the top strokes) bending or leaning over a container or bowl (the lower portion). The image captures the basic idea of someone eating—the physical posture and the presence of food together. Over time, the picture simplified into the abstract strokes we see today, but the meaning stayed the same: the act of eating and food itself.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (食).
Common words
- 飲食 いんしょく food and drink; eating and drinking
- 会食 かいしょく eating together; dining together
- 外食 がいしょく eating out; dining out
- 間食 かんしょく eating between meals; snacking
- 給食 きゅうしょく provision of lunch (e.g. at office, school, etc.); providing a meal
- 軽食 けいしょく light meal; snack
- 月食 げっしょく lunar eclipse
- 乞食 こじき beggar
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 184
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #328 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 4
- Unicode
- U+098DF