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Portable

On’yomiけい
Kun’yomiたずさ.える・たずさ.わる
MeaningsPortable, Carry (in Hand), Armed With, Bring Along
JLPT N1 13 strokes #998 most common Secondary school Radical hand
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 携

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

13 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 携

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 携 is read けい. 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 携

Radical 64 of 214
Hand

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 携 is filed under (hand) — radical number 64 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 手

練習 · Practice

Drill 携 right now

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Portable けい たずさ.える・たずさ.わる
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 携

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.

連携 れんけい cooperation; coordination; collaboration
提携 ていけい cooperation; tie-up; joint business
携帯 けいたい carrying (on one's person or in the hand); mobile phone; cell phone
連携プレー れんけいプレー (good) teamwork; team play; (close) cooperation
携行 けいこう carrying (on one's person); taking with one
携る たずさわる to engage in; to participate in; to take part in
携わる たずさわる to engage in; to participate in; to take part in
携える たずさえる to carry in one's hand; to carry with one; to have on one's person
必携 ひっけい indispensable; essential; must-have
携帯電話 けいたいでんわ mobile phone; cell phone
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 携

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

画数 · 13 strokes

Other 13-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

携 is the 998th 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 携

What does the kanji 携 mean?

携 means Portable, Carry (in Hand), Armed With, Bring Along. It is the 998th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 携?

携 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) けい; kun'yomi (native Japanese) たずさ.える、たずさ.わる.

How many strokes does 携 have?

携 is written with 13 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 携?

It appears at JLPT level N1, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in secondary school.

What is the radical of 携?

The radical of 携 is 手 (hand), radical number 64 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 携 made of?

携 is built from 扌 (hand) and 隽 (superior). Learning kanji as combinations of a few hundred reusable components is far more efficient than memorising each character as a separate shape.

Why is 携 read けい?

携 contains 隽 as its phonetic component — the part that carries the sound rather than the meaning, which is why 携 is read けい. 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 携?

Common words written with 携 include 連携 (れんけい, cooperation; coordination; collaboration); 提携 (ていけい, cooperation; tie-up; joint business); 携帯 (けいたい, carrying (on one's person or in the hand); mobile phone; cell phone).

Which kanji sound the same as 携?

携 shares a reading with 京 (けい), 経 (けい), 計 (けい), 係 (けい), 境 (けい), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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