Meaning & readings

stop-over, reside in, resident

On’yomi チュウ

Origin

The left side shows a horse (), which is the meaning component here — it hints at something related to animals or vehicles. The right side () is a sound hint that tells you roughly how to pronounce the character (like "chuu"). The combination suggests a horse stopping or staying in one place, which led to the meaning of stopping over or residing somewhere. Over time, the sense of a horse halting evolved into the general idea of staying put or being stationed in a location.

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

15 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

  • 常駐 じょうちゅう permanent stationing; staying permanently
  • 進駐 しんちゅう occupation; stationing
  • 駐在 ちゅうざい residence; stay
  • 駐車 ちゅうしゃ parking (a vehicle)
  • 駐屯 ちゅうとん stationing (troops); garrisoning
  • 駐日 ちゅうにち resident in Japan (of a foreign ambassador, government official, etc.)
  • 駐留 ちゅうりゅう stationing (e.g. of troops); garrison
  • 駐車場 ちゅうしゃじょう parking lot; car park

Reference

Strokes
15
Kangxi radical
187
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#955 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+099D0