Some Japanese dictionaries (e.g. 大辞林, 大辞泉, and 明鏡国語辞典) use this inverted triangle outline symbol (▽) for some kanji compounds. What does it mean?

Question

It doesn't apply to all the words, just some. Here are examples of words from that are marked with that symbol

• 悪い　(with reading にくい): 大辞泉; 大辞林
• 面倒くさい　(with reading めんどくさい): 大辞泉; 大辞林
• 皆 (with reading みんな): 大辞泉; 大辞林
• 判る・解る (with reading わかる): 大辞泉;　大辞林

The thing is even for the same word, 大辞林 and 大辞泉 places the ▽ symbol at different positions.

For your convenience, here are 2 cropped screenshots to illustrate what I mean:

1. From 大辞林

   

2. From 大辞泉

   

Apparently 明鏡国語辞典 uses this symbol too. Here's a screenshot for 解る・判る from an EPWING viewer.

As far as I know, 広辞苑 doesn't use this symbol. See below

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As I'm typing this, I noticed a pattern: the symbol seems to indicate that the reading is either non-standard or not-so-common for that particular kanji. Several kanji references seem to support this interpretation.

Take 悪 for example, kakijun mentions "にく(む)[常用外]", and 漢字辞典ネット labels "にく(む)" with 準1 (which I assume is the second highest level in 漢検?).　Same for 判る and 解る, whereas みんな and ど aren't listed as reading for 皆 and 倒 (perhaps those are more colloquial?).

It's just that 大辞泉 and 大辞林 uses different convention: for 大辞泉 it's the kanji to the right of ▽, for 大辞林 it's the kanji to the left of ▽.

Am I going in the right direction with this interpretation?

Answer 1

Am I going in the right direction with this interpretation?

You got it, friend! 大辞林曰く、

【　】の中【なか】の漢字【かんじ】が「常用【じょうよう】漢字【かんじ】表【ひょう】」にないものには「 ▼ 」、その漢字が「常用漢字表」にはあるが見出【みだ】しに相当【そうとう】する音訓【おんくん】が示【しめ】されていないものには「 ▽ 」を漢字の右肩【みぎかた】に付【ふ】した。
If a given kanji isn't part of the 常用漢字 list, it'll be marked with a ▼. If it is part of the 常用漢字 list but uses a non-standard reading, a ▽ will be placed on its right side.

Same deal on the 大辞泉:

▽ 常用漢字表にない音訓
▽ Non-standard reading of a 常用漢字

So yes, the ▽ symbol indicates a non-standard kanji reading. And yeah, it looks like both dictionaries choose opposite sides of the characters to place the symbol on.