employee, member, number, the one in charge
Came from Chinese. It usually shows up when the kanji is joined to another, forming a compound word.
The order matters: it is what makes handwriting come out legible, and it is how dictionaries index the character.
Visual decomposition, for recognising and comparing — not always the character's origin.
Where it appears is highlighted — the translation doesn't always make that visible.
そして、満員の客席と、とっくに過ぎ去った台風を背に、タナカはついに舞台に上がりました。
Soshite, man'in no kyakuseki to, tokku ni sugisatta taifuu wo se ni, Tanaka wa tsui ni butai ni agarimashita.
And with the house packed and the typhoon long gone, Tanaka finally stepped onto the stage.
ルーカス!信じられないよ。さっき店員さんが棚に商品を補充してたの。
Ruukasu! Shinjirarenai yo. Sakki tenin-san ga tana ni shouhin wo hojuu shiteta no.
Lucas! You're not going to believe this. An employee was restocking the shelf just now.
Readings and meanings: KANJIDIC2 · Decomposition: KRADFILE · Both from Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, CC BY-SA 4.0 · data from 2026-09-07 · Strokes: KanjiVG, Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0