軒
Meaning in Englisheaves, edge of roof
Animated kanji stroke order
Related sentences
Related sentences
There are no published items in this section yet.
Word context
What it means
What does 軒 mean? It denotes the eaves of a building—the projecting edge of a roof—and, in traditional usage, a counter for houses or shops when enumerating buildings.
Main meanings
- rooftop overhang around a building, the projecting roof line (noki)
- the exterior face of a house used in street descriptions or landmarks
- as a traditional counter after a numeral to count houses or shops
How to use it
Used in architectural descriptions, historical texts, and formal writing; when counting, it follows a numeral (e.g., five houses).
Variants and close terms
- eaves and roof edge — noki
- building counter — ken
- related term nokisaki referring to the eaves front — nokisaki
Composition
軒 is a single kanji; its sense centers on the roof edge or eaves of a building, reflecting an architectural feature rather than a standalone morpheme.
Etymology
ken (on'yomi) and noki (kun'yomi) show the word's historical readings; the phonetic shift reflects Chinese borrowings and later exclusive use in architectural terms.
Origin
In classical Japan, the character conveyed a building-related sense and later appeared in Edo-period records as a unit for counting houses, continuing in formal language today.
Word class
noun (名詞)