Question about the kun'yomi reading of 上

[Leebo]

@Sezme

Just to further clarify, words like 大人 and 二十日 are Japanese words (that presumably existed before the importation of kanji) where kanji with the appropriate meaning was used to visually represent the word irrespective of the actual kunyomi. These words are known as 当て字 (あてじ). 下手(へた) is another good one.

We had a discussion on that subject the other day (what to call that particular category of words). This is the post where it started.

Wanikani is just not useful enough, but could be

Isn’t 当て字 the other way around? I mean, when the kanji are just used phonetically, ignoring the meanings?