圏 means “sphere, zone, range”
けん · ken
Also: circle, radius
- Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)
- かこい
- On'yomi (Chinese reading)
- ケン
JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 12 strokes
The story
A scroll (巻) rolled up inside a fence (囗): an area with a line drawn around it. 圏 is a sphere or zone: 首都圏 is Greater Tokyo, and when your phone loses signal deep in the mountains, the screen reads 圏外, out of range.
Used in 首都圏 (shutoken, Greater Tokyo area), 圏外 (kengai, out of range), and 大気圏 (taikiken, the atmosphere)
More from Shapes & Angles
- 縦 vertical
- 緯 latitude
- 径 diameter
- 斜 diagonal
- 傍 beside
- 塊 lump
- 孔 hole
- 凸 convex
- 凹 concave
- 弧 arc
- 隙 gap
- 環 ring
Learn 圏 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji
Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.