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Noodles

On’yomiめん・べん
Kun’yomiむぎこ
MeaningsNoodles, Wheat Flour
16 strokes #2269 most common Secondary school Radical wheat
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 麺

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

16 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 麺

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 麺

Radical 199 of 214
Wheat

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 麺 is filed under (wheat) — radical number 199 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 麥

練習 · Practice

Drill 麺 right now

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Noodles めん・べん むぎこ
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 麺

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.

生麺 ナマメン raw noodles, uncooked noodles; fresh noodles
平麺 ヒラメン flat noodles, ribbon pasta (fettuccine, etc.)
製麺 セーメン noodle making
太麺 フトメン thick noodles, thick pasta
素麺 ソーメン fine white noodles
冷麺 レーメン cold noodles (in Korean style); chilled Chinese noodles; cold Chinese noodles accompanied
温麺 オンミョン type of sōmen made without added oil
袋麺 フクロメン instant noodles sold in soft plastic packaging
索麺 ソーメン fine white noodles
麺麻 メンマ bamboo shoots boiled, sliced, fermented, dried or preserved in salt, then soaked in hot wa
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 麺

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

画数 · 16 strokes

Other 16-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

麺 is the 2269th 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 麺

What does the kanji 麺 mean?

麺 means Noodles, Wheat Flour. It is the 2269th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 麺?

麺 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) めん、べん; kun'yomi (native Japanese) むぎこ.

How many strokes does 麺 have?

麺 is written with 16 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 麺?

Japanese schoolchildren learn it in secondary school.

What is the radical of 麺?

The radical of 麺 is 麥 (wheat), radical number 199 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 麺 made of?

麺 is built from 麦 (barley) and 面 (mask). 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 麺?

Common words written with 麺 include 生麺 (ナマメン, raw noodles, uncooked noodles; fresh noodles); 平麺 (ヒラメン, flat noodles, ribbon pasta (fettuccine, etc.)); 製麺 (セーメン, noodle making).

Which kanji sound the same as 麺?

麺 shares a reading with 面 (めん), 弁 (べん), 便 (べん), 綿 (めん), 瞑 (べん), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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