盤 means “board, base, tray”

ばん · ban

Also: shallow bowl, platter, tub

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

バン

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 15 strokes

The story

A dish (皿) under 般, a boat (舟) and a hand with a pole (殳): picture a wide, flat tray like a deck. 盤 is a board: 基盤 is groundwork, 将棋盤 a shogi board, and 序盤 and 終盤, the opening and the endgame, run through sports commentary.

Used in 基盤 (kiban, foundation/infrastructure), 序盤 (joban, early stage), and 円盤 (enban, disc)

More from Roots & Foundations

• 礎 cornerstone
• 軸 axis
• 概 outline
• 枢 pivot
• 芯 core
• 基 foundation
• 幹 trunk
• 源 source
• 拠 basis

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