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Blade

On’yomiじん・にん
Kun’yomiは・やいば・き.る
MeaningsBlade, Sword, Edge
JLPT N1 3 strokes #1714 most common Secondary school Radical knife
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 刃

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

3 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 刃

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 刃

Radical 18 of 214
Knife

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 刃 is filed under (knife) — radical number 18 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 刀

練習 · Practice

Drill 刃 right now

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

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Blade じん・にん は・やいば・き.る
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 刃

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.

刃物 はもの edged tool; cutting instrument; knife
刃もの はもの edged tool; cutting instrument; knife
刃金 はがね steel; sword steel; sword
刃渡 はわたり length of a blade; walking barefoot on the edge of a sword blade (acrobatic stunt)
刃渡り はわたり length of a blade; walking barefoot on the edge of a sword blade (acrobatic stunt)
出刃 でば broad-bladed kitchen knife (for dressing fish)
両刃 もろは double-edged (e.g. sword blade); double-beveled (e.g. kitchen knife); double-edged blade
双刃 もろは double-edged (e.g. sword blade); double-beveled (e.g. kitchen knife); double-edged blade
諸刃 もろは double-edged (e.g. sword blade); double-beveled (e.g. kitchen knife); double-edged blade
もろ刃 もろは double-edged (e.g. sword blade); double-beveled (e.g. kitchen knife); double-edged blade
名乗り · Name readings

How 刃 is read in names

Japanese names use readings that appear nowhere else in the language. These are 刃's — the reason personal and place names are so hard to read even for native speakers.

同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 刃

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

画数 · 3 strokes

Other 3-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

刃 is the 1714th 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 刃

What does the kanji 刃 mean?

刃 means Blade, Sword, Edge. It is the 1714th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 刃?

刃 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) じん、にん; kun'yomi (native Japanese) は、やいば、き.る.

How many strokes does 刃 have?

刃 is written with 3 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 刃?

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

What is the radical of 刃?

The radical of 刃 is 刀 (knife), radical number 18 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 刃 made of?

刃 is built from 刀 (sword) and 丶 (dot). 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 刃?

Common words written with 刃 include 刃物 (はもの, edged tool; cutting instrument; knife); 刃もの (はもの, edged tool; cutting instrument; knife); 刃金 (はがね, steel; sword steel; sword).

Which kanji sound the same as 刃?

刃 shares a reading with 人 (じん), 認 (にん), 任 (にん), 陣 (じん), 尽 (じん), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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