桁 means “digit, place, beam”

けた · keta

Also: girder, spar, unit or column (accounting)

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)
けた
On'yomi (Chinese reading)
コウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 10 strokes

The story

Wood (木) laid in a row (行): a beam or girder. The rods of a soroban are 桁 too, each one a place in a number, so 二桁 is double digits, and something 桁違い is off the scale, a whole order of magnitude beyond.

Used in 二桁 (futaketa, double digits), 桁違い (ketachigai, of a different order), and 橋桁 (hashigeta, bridge girder)

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