First opened Friday, November 13, 2009
上下
じょうげ
- head-high (atamadaka): falls after mora 1
How to read it: a line over a kana means the voice is high there, and ↓ marks where it drops. A kana with no line is low. With no ↓ the pitch stays high to the end and does not drop even on a following particle (が, は).
high and low, up and down
“Up and down” came over from Chinese as a ready-made compound — and じょうげ is likely its first reading.
Taken apart
Select a part to see every word so far that is taken apart with it.
Wiktionary's text doesn't split this word, so each part is one of its kanji (with the okurigana written after it), with the reading and the dictionary meaning KANJIDIC2 gives that character — a word doesn't always use every sense of its kanji.
In a sentence
彼は首を上下に振った。
He shook his head up and down.
彼は旗を上下に動かした。
He moved the flags up and down.
Sentences are from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR), picked by fixed rules from a dated export and shown unchanged. Nobody has reviewed them one by one.
What Wiktionary says
Quoted line by line from Wiktionary's Etymology section for this reading, taken from one dated dump so it can't change underneath us. Nothing below is paraphrased.
Not settled
Wiktionary itself hedges on part of this word's origin — those lines are marked below.
- “/d͡ʑauɡe/ → /d͡ʑɔːɡe/ → /d͡ʑoːɡe/”
- “From Middle Chinese compound 上下 (dzyangᴴ hæ^X, literally “up and down”). Compare modern Cantonese reading soeng⁶ haa⁶, Hakka song-ha, or Min Nan alternative reading chiūⁿ hā.”
- Hedged“The goon reading, so likely the initial borrowing.”
Source: Wiktionary: 上下 (dump of 2026-09-02), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Reading, meaning and part of speech from JMdict, and kanji readings from KANJIDIC2 (EDRDG).
Other readings of 上下 on the same Wiktionary page
These describe other words written the same way, not じょうげ. They are quoted for context: the parts, layer and processes of this word are not taken from them.
あがりおり
- “Compound of 上(あ)がり (agari, “rising, going up”, the 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 上(あ)がる (agaru, “to rise, to go up”)) + 下(お)り (ori, “descending, going down”, the 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 下(お)りる (oriru, “to descend, to go down”)).”
あがりさがり
- “Compound of 上(あ)がり (agari, “rising, going up”, the 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 上(あ)がる (agaru, “to rise, to go up”)) + 下(さ)がり (sagari, “coming down, hanging down”, the 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 下(さ)がる (sagaru, “to come down, to hang down”)).”
あげおろし
- “Compound of 上(あ)げ (age, “raising, lifting up”, 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 上(あ)げる (ageru, “to raise, lift”)) + 下(お)ろし (oroshi, “lowering, bringing down”, 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 下(お)ろす (orosu, “to lower, bring down”)).”
あげくだし
- “Compound of 上(あ)げ (age, “raising, lifting”, 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 上(あ)げる (ageru, “to raise, lift”)) + 下(く)だし (kudashi, “putting something down; passing something through one's gut”, 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 下(くだ)す (kudasu, “to put something down; to pass something through one's gut”)).”
あげさげ
- “Compound of 上(あ)げ (age, “raising, lifting”, 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 上(あ)げる (ageru, “to raise, lift”)) + 下(さ)げ (sage, “lowering something, hanging something down”, 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 下(さ)げる (sageru, “to lower something, to hang something down”)).”
うえした
- “Compound of 上(うえ) (ue, “up”) + 下(した) (shita, “down”).”
かみしも
- “Compound of 上(かみ) (kami, “up, upper; first”) + 下(しも) (shimo, “down, lower; last”).”
かりめり
- “Compound of 上(か)り (kari, “rising in tone”, 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 上(か)る (karu, “to rise in tone”)) + 下(め)り (meri, “falling in tone”, 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 下(め)る (meru, “to fall in tone”)).”
しょうか
- “/ɕauka/ → /ɕɔːka/ → /ɕoːka/”
- “From Middle Chinese compound 上下 (dzyangᴴ hæ^X, literally “up and down”). Compare modern Cantonese reading soeng⁶ haa⁶ or Hakka song-ha.”
- “The kan'on, so likely a later borrowing.”
じょうか
- “/d͡ʑauka/ → /d͡ʑɔːka/ → /d͡ʑoːka/”
- “From Middle Chinese compound 上下 (dzyangᴴ hæ^X, literally “up and down”). Compare modern Min Nan alternative reading chiūⁿ hā.”
- “A mixed reading, using the goon of jō and the kan'on of ka.”
のぼりおり
- “Compound of 上(の)ぼり (nobori, “climbing, going up”, 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 上(のぼ)る (noboru, “to climb, to go up”)) + 下(お)り (ori, “descending, going down”, 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 下(お)りる (oriru, “to descend, to go down”)).”
のぼりくだり
- “Compound of 上(の)ぼり (nobori, “climbing, going up”, 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 上(のぼ)る (noboru, “to climb, to go up”)) + 下(くだ)り (kudari, “descending, coming down”, 連(れん)用(よう)形(けい) (ren'yōkei, “stem or continuative form”) of the verb 下(くだ)る (kudaru, “to descend a path, to come down a path”)).”
What the labels mean
- 漢語 Sino-Japanese
- Words built from Chinese-derived morphemes — borrowed from Chinese or coined in Japan out of Chinese parts — read with on'yomi.
- Compound
- Two or more words or stems joined into one.
- Borrowing
- Taken over from another language.
- Sound change
- The pronunciation shifted over the centuries.