It is a phono-semantic compound character, formed by combining 人 ("person") and 意 ("intention, thought").

Originally, 億 meant "to be at ease" or "comfortable," coming from the idea of a person (人) whose will or intentions (意) go according to plan. However, through phonetic loan (假借/ 가차), it came to be used exclusively to mean the number one hundred million, and that is its primary use today.

Characters

Words

Vocabulary

low, to be low, lower than

to make, to build, to create, composition

to serve, to attend

to rely on, to depend on, to lean on

convenient, comfortable, excrement

to tie, to be tied, to connect, to relate

individual, single unit

false, fake, temporary, to borrow

a hundred million, 100.000.000, hundred-millionth

first, beginning, origin, chief

first, foremost, before, earlier

inside, inner, within

whole, complete, entire

two, a pair, both

six, number 6, sixth

to put together, to arrange, to construct

crown, cap, to crown, foremost

Explore the meaning, etymology and usage of this Chinese character. Learn its radical and how it is applied in Korean language.

Chinese character

Explore 214 Chinese radicals and their derived characters. Sort by radical or stroke count, and view the complete list of official Hanja radicals.

Chinese characters (Hanja)

Chinese characters dictionary

億

Etymology

Usage in Korean

Characters next to each other in the list

References