Jaw Character

It means “jaw,” and in Japanese it can also mean chin.

In Japanese, 顎 is read あご for the everyday jaw or lower chin; compounds also use がく. Chinese dictionaries pair traditional 顎 with simplified 颚 for the jaw. The surrounding language matters more than a bare glyph: this is anatomy, not an all-purpose reaction mark.

Structurally, 顎 is phono-semantic: 頁 supplies the head-related side and 咢 supplies the sound. Historical dictionary records also preserve glosses about a high or solemn face, while Japanese dictionaries record the jaw sense as its national-language use. The evidence available as of 2026 does not establish a first manuscript appearance or a single inventor.

What does 顎 mean in a Japanese message?

The phrase around it decides the social reading.

A phrase can override the anatomical reading: 顎が外れる is a Japanese idiom for laughing hard; 顎を出す describes being worn out; 顎で使う criticizes someone for ordering people around. These readings are conventional phrases, not new meanings of the bare character.

If someone sends only 顎, read it literally unless the surrounding text supplies one of those constructions. When writing to a superior or a new contact, avoid the idioms unless you intend their comic, exhausted, or critical tone.

The glyph follows the font and language standard

A CJK font can draw 顎 with different regional details, so a stroke-level difference does not by itself signal a different word. It is a font-drawn text character, not a picture with one fixed design.

For input, type the reading in an IME and choose the candidate: Japanese あご or がく; Mandarin uses e, with 颚 as the simplified Chinese form. Candidate lists vary with language settings, so select the script standard your sentence uses.