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Ward

On’yomiく・おう・こう
MeaningsWard, District
JLPT N2 4 strokes #136 most common Grade 3 Radical hiding enclosure
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 区

Stroke order is not decoration — it determines how the character looks handwritten and how dictionaries index it.

4 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 区

Almost every kanji is built from a small set of reusable parts. Learn the parts once and you stop memorising thousands of unrelated shapes.

部首 · Radical

The radical of 区

Radical 23 of 214
Hiding enclosure

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 区 is filed under (hiding enclosure) — radical number 23 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 匸

練習 · Practice

Drill 区 right now

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Ward く・おう・こう
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 区

Kanji are almost never met alone. These are the most common words built from this character, ordered by how often they actually appear in Japanese.

地区 ちく district; area; zone
小選挙区 しょうせんきょく small electoral district; single-member constituency
区内 くない in a ward; within the ward; within the zone
区域 くいき area; zone; district
区間 くかん section (of track, etc.); segment; dimension
区長 くちょう head of a ward; mayor of a ward; chief administrator of a ward
区立 くりつ established by a ward; ward; municipal
区民 くみん ward residents
区別 くべつ distinction; differentiation; discrimination
区分 くぶん division; section; demarcation
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 区

Japanese has far more kanji than syllables, so one reading is shared by many characters. These are the ones you will confuse with 区 — learn them together, not separately.

画数 · 4 strokes

Other 4-stroke kanji

Useful when looking a character up by stroke count — and a common source of visual mix-ups.

頻度 · Frequency

Next in the frequency list

区 is the 136th most common kanji in written Japanese. Learning in frequency order is the fastest route to reading real text.

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質問 · Questions

About the kanji 区

What does the kanji 区 mean?

区 means Ward, District. It is the 136th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 区?

区 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) く、おう、こう.

How many strokes does 区 have?

区 is written with 4 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 区?

It appears at JLPT level N2, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in grade 3.

What is the radical of 区?

The radical of 区 is 匸 (hiding enclosure), radical number 23 of the 214 Kangxi radicals. The radical is the component a dictionary files the character under, and it usually points at the character's meaning.

What parts is the kanji 区 made of?

区 is built from 匸 (hiding enclosure radical (no. 23)) and 乂 (mow) and 匸 (hiding enclosure radical (no. 23)). Learning kanji as combinations of a few hundred reusable components is far more efficient than memorising each character as a separate shape.

What words use the kanji 区?

Common words written with 区 include 地区 (ちく, district; area; zone); 小選挙区 (しょうせんきょく, small electoral district; single-member constituency); 区内 (くない, in a ward; within the ward; within the zone).

Which kanji sound the same as 区?

区 shares a reading with 九 (く), 公 (く), 応 (おう), 口 (く), 工 (く), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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