Emaki · all 1,500 words

一体

いったい

what on earth, what the…

Mnemonic

One, and a body, the whole thing balled up into a single question. You come home and he is sat at the table eating a tie いったい: いったい.

Worth knowing

Goes in front of a question word to sharpen it: 一体何ですか, 一体誰が.

Built from

one
A single stroke. It doesn't get simpler than this.
body
亻 person + 本 root, origin

Words sharing these kanji

(the) most one once instant, for a moment once more for the time being, more or less together in one go (one) part single word, a few words number one, first not at all, absolutely nothing

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Emaki is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, Kaishi 1.5k or its authors. The word, reading and meaning come from the Kaishi 1.5k deck, used with their permission. The mnemonic, the note and the kanji breakdown are original work, published under CC BY-SA 4.0.