Onyomi: コウ, ゴ · Kunyomi: お.りる, お.ろす, くだ.す, くだ.る, ふ.り, ふ.る · Meanings: descend, fall, precipitate, surrender
Kanji for descend, fall, precipitate, surrender
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降 combines the left radical 阝, which represents a hill or slope, with the character 夅, which originally showed a person stepping downward with their arms lowered. Ancient scribes used this combination to express the motion of someone moving down a hillside or descending from a higher place. The shape captures the careful, deliberate action of going downward, whether it’s a person walking down or something naturally falling from above.
降 shows a person descending a slope — the left side is a hill, and the right side shows the posture of stepping downward. Together it represents falling, lowering, or going down.
Think of someone carefully walking down a hill (阝), their body stepping lower and lower (夅) — that steady descent is the meaning of 降.
| Word | Reading | Meaning | Meta |
|---|---|---|---|
| 降りる | おりる | to descend (e.g. a mountain), to go down, to come down | common JLPT-N4 JLPT-N5 Ichidan verb, Intransitive verb |
| 降る | ふる | to fall (of rain, snow, ash, etc.), to come down | common JLPT-N5 Godan verb with 'ru' ending, Intransitive verb |
| 降水 | こうすい | rainfall, precipitation | common JLPT-N1 Noun |
| 下り | くだり | down-train, train heading toward the ending point of its route | common JLPT-N3 Noun |
| 下ろす | おろす | to take down, to bring down, to lower (a hand, flag, shutter, etc.), to drop (an anchor, curtain, etc.), to let down (hair), to launch (a boat) | common JLPT-N3 Godan verb with 'su' ending, Transitive verb |
| 降り出す | ふりだす | to begin to rain, to begin to snow | JLPT-N4 Godan verb with 'su' ending, Intransitive verb |
| 下る | くだる | to descend, to go down, to come down | common JLPT-N2 Godan verb with 'ru' ending, Intransitive verb |
| 降伏 | こうふく | surrender, capitulation, submission | common JLPT-N1 Noun, Suru verb, Intransitive verb |
| 降雪 | こうせつ | snowfall, snow | common Noun, Suru verb |
| 降雨 | こうう | rainfall, rain | common Noun |
| 降水量 | こうすいりょう | amount of precipitation, precipitation | common Noun |
| 降格 | こうかく | demotion, relegation, downgrading | common Noun, Suru verb, Transitive verb, Intransitive verb |
| 下す | くだす | to make a decision, to draw a conclusion | common Godan verb with 'su' ending, Transitive verb |
| 降参 | こうさん | surrender, submission, capitulation | common Noun, Suru verb, Intransitive verb |
| 降り注ぐ | ふりそそぐ | to rain incessantly, to downpour | Godan verb with 'gu' ending, Intransitive verb |