What 囮 means
It means a decoy or bait used to draw a target in.
The Han-era Shuowen Jiezi, an early Chinese dictionary, describes tying up a live bird to attract others. A Japanese dictionary, 新撰字鏡, records the same bird-luring sense for おとり and is dated 898–901. One proposed origin is おきとり, meaning “inviting bird.”
In Japanese, the word widened from a bird used to attract others to an animal, person, or tempting offer. Chinese dictionaries also record the decoy-bird sense and senses of deceiving or cheating. 媒鳥 is an alternative Japanese spelling of おとり, a lexical connection rather than a visual resemblance.
When does 囮 sound like a trap?
The surrounding word tells you what is being lured.
囮広告 means bait advertising; 囮捜査 means a sting or undercover operation that uses a decoy. As of 2026, Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency describes advertising a product as available when it cannot actually be purchased as an unfair representation.
Sent alone, 囮 names a decoy but leaves its target unstated. In a message to someone, it can sound like calling them the bait; explain more if that is not your intended meaning.
In Japanese, this kanji spelling is uncommon; the word is usually written おとり in kana.
Alone, it may sound like “you are the bait,” not a neutral reaction.
Who writes 囮
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What it means when someone sends it to you
4 readingsA decoy or lure; the target is left to context.
Combination ideas
3Questions people ask
1Why does 囮 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
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How to type or find 囮
- Also called
- おとり · otori · 媒鳥
- Search it as
- decoy · bait · lure · trap · 囮広告 · 囮捜査
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
囮\56EECodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.