字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

age

On’yomi レイ
Kun’yomi よわい、とし

Origin

The character 齢 combines the radical for teeth (歯) on the left with a sound hint (令) on the right. Teeth were used as a way to determine age in ancient times, since they develop and wear down predictably throughout a person's life. The sound component 令 tells you roughly how to pronounce the character, while the tooth radical conveys the idea of age. Together, the character literally pictures the connection between teeth and aging to represent the concept of age itself.

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

齢 17 strokes

Components

  • 歯 radical left
  • 令 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

  • 学齢 がくれい school age
  • 高齢 こうれい advanced age; old age
  • 樹齢 じゅれい age of a tree
  • 老齢 ろうれい old age; advanced age
  • 年齢 ねんれい age; years
  • 適齢 てきれい suitable age
  • 適齢期 てきれいき suitable age (esp. for marriage); marriageable age
  • 年齢層 ねんれいそう age range; age-group

Related kanji

Same sound component 令

Reference

Strokes
17
Kangxi radical
211
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#770 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+09F62