呂 means “backbone, bath (in 風呂)”

ろ · ro

Also: spine

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

せぼね

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ロ, リョ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 7 strokes

The story

Two boxes (口) joined by a short stroke: the old dictionaries say 呂 once meant the backbone, one vertebra linked to the next. Now it mostly lives in 風呂, the bath, and in 語呂合わせ, the number puns that make 4649 read よろしく.

Used in 風呂 (furo, bath), 語呂合わせ (goroawase, wordplay/number puns), and 呂律 (roretsu, articulation)

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Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.