庸 means “mediocre, moderate”

よう · you

Also: commonplace, ordinary, employment

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ヨウ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 11 strokes

The story

Under a roof (广), a hand (⺕) and 用, use: everyday things put to everyday use. 凡庸 is mediocre, a talent nobody remembers, while 中庸, keeping to the middle, is the Confucian virtue of moderation.

Used in 凡庸 (bon'you, mediocre) and 中庸 (chuuyou, moderation/the golden mean)

More from Odd & Ordinary

• 緻 fine
• 異 different
• 微 slight
• 詳 detailed
• 偏 biased
• 奇 strange
• 駄 worthless
• 朴 simple
• 粗 coarse
• 凡 commonplace
• 冗 superfluous
• 汎 general

Learn 庸 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

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