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Location

On’yomiじょう・ちょう
Kun’yomi
MeaningsLocation, Place
JLPT N4 12 strokes #52 most common Grade 2 Radical earth
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 場

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

12 strokes
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Draw it on screen and be marked on stroke order and direction.

分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 場

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

Why it sounds the way it does. The part is the phonetic component — it carries the sound rather than the meaning. That is why 場 is read じょう. Roughly two-thirds of all kanji work this way, which makes unfamiliar readings guessable once you spot the pattern.
部首 · Radical

The radical of 場

Radical 32 of 214
Earth

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 場 is filed under (earth) — radical number 32 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 土

練習 · Practice

Drill 場 right now

Three quick games built from this character's real data. Your streak is kept in this browser.

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Location じょう・ちょう ば
What does it mean?
Which kanji is it?
熟語 · In real words

Words that use 場

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.

市場 いちば (town) market; (street) market; marketplace
立場 たちば position; situation; viewpoint
現場 げんば actual spot; scene (of a crime, accident, etc.); (on) site
場所 ばしょ place; location; spot
工場 こうじょう factory; plant; mill
会場 かいじょう assembly hall; meeting place; venue
出場 しゅつじょう participation (in a tournament, match, race, etc.); entry; taking part (in)
劇場 げきじょう theatre; theater; playhouse
相場 そうば market price; speculation (e.g. on stocks); reputation (according to conventional wisdom)
場面 ばめん scene; setting; place (where something happens)
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 場

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

地名 · In place names

Japanese towns written with 場

Place names are where kanji readings get strange — and where you meet this character in the wild.

画数 · 12 strokes

Other 12-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

場 is the 52nd 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 場

What does the kanji 場 mean?

場 means Location, Place. It is the 52nd most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 場?

場 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) じょう、ちょう; kun'yomi (native Japanese) ば.

How many strokes does 場 have?

場 is written with 12 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 場?

It appears at JLPT level N4, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in grade 2.

What is the radical of 場?

The radical of 場 is 土 (earth), radical number 32 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 場 made of?

場 is built from 土 (soil) and 昜 (open). Learning kanji as combinations of a few hundred reusable components is far more efficient than memorising each character as a separate shape.

Why is 場 read じょう?

場 contains 昜 as its phonetic component — the part that carries the sound rather than the meaning, which is why 場 is read じょう. Roughly two-thirds of all kanji are built this way, so spotting the phonetic component often lets you guess the reading of a character you have never seen.

What words use the kanji 場?

Common words written with 場 include 市場 (いちば, (town) market; (street) market; marketplace); 立場 (たちば, position; situation; viewpoint); 現場 (げんば, actual spot; scene (of a crime, accident, etc.); (on) site).

Which kanji sound the same as 場?

場 shares a reading with 長 (ちょう), 上 (じょう), 定 (じょう), 調 (ちょう), 成 (じょう), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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