字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

wonder, be surprised, frightened, amazed

On’yomi キョウ
Kun’yomi おどろ.く、おどろ.かす

Origin

This character pictures a horse with the top component acting as a sound hint for pronunciation. The bottom part, which depicts a horse, is key to the meaning — horses are easily startled animals that react with sudden fear or alarm to unexpected things. By combining the image of a nervous horse with a sound component, the character came to mean surprise, fright, or amazement. The connection makes sense because being startled is like how a horse suddenly jumps or bolts when frightened.

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

驚 22 strokes

Components

  • 敬 sound hint top
  • 馬 radical bottom

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

Common words

  • 驚き おどろき surprise; astonishment
  • 驚く おどろく to be surprised; to be taken aback
  • 驚異 きょうい wonder; miracle
  • 驚嘆 きょうたん wonder; admiration
  • 驚愕 きょうがく astonishment; amazement
  • 驚かす おどろかす to surprise; to frighten
  • 驚くほど おどろくほど to a surprising degree; to a remarkable extent

Related kanji

Same sound component 敬
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
22
Kangxi radical
187
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1141 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+09A5A