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.