字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

boisterous, make noise, clamor, disturb, excite

On’yomi ソウ
Kun’yomi さわ.ぐ、うれい、さわ.がしい

Origin

The character combines a horse (馬) on the left with a sound hint on the right that suggests the reading. The horse likely evokes the sense of commotion and noise because horses are animals that can be unpredictable and cause disturbance—they neigh, stomp, and create a ruckus when agitated. The right side functions purely as a pronunciation guide and doesn't contribute to the meaning. Together, this shape came to mean "boisterous" or "to make noise."

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

騒 18 strokes

Components

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 騒ぎ さわぎ uproar; disturbance
  • 騒ぐ さわぐ to make noise; to make racket
  • 騒音 そうおん noise; din
  • 騒然 そうぜん noisy; confused
  • 騒動 そうどう riot; rebellion
  • 騒乱 そうらん disturbance; riot
  • 物騒 ぶっそう dangerous; unsettled
  • 大騒ぎ おおさわぎ clamour; clamor

Related kanji

Same radical

Reference

Strokes
18
Kangxi radical
187
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1069 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+09A12