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Husband

On’yomiふ・ふう・ぶ
Kun’yomiおっと・それ
MeaningsHusband, Man
JLPT N3 4 strokes #333 most common Grade 4 Radical big
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 夫

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 夫

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

radical large =
Husband
部首 · Radical

The radical of 夫

Radical 37 of 214
Big

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 夫 is filed under (big) — radical number 37 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 大

練習 · Practice

Drill 夫 right now

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

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Husband ふ・ふう・ぶ おっと・それ
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 夫

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.

夫人 ふじん wife; Mrs; Madam
夫婦 ふうふ married couple; husband and wife; man and wife
夫妻 ふさい husband and wife; married couple
工夫 くふう devising (a way); contriving; inventing
功夫 くふう devising (a way); contriving; inventing
大丈夫 だいじょうぶ safe; secure; sound
丈夫 じょうぶ healthy; robust; strong
義太夫 ぎだゆう gidayū (type of reciting used in the puppet theater)
老夫婦 ろうふうふ old couple; elderly couple
亡夫 ぼうふ deceased husband; late husband
名乗り · Name readings

How 夫 is read in names

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

ゆう
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 夫

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

地名 · In place names

Japanese towns written with 夫

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

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

夫 is the 333rd 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 夫

What does the kanji 夫 mean?

夫 means Husband, Man. It is the 333rd most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 夫?

夫 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) ふ、ふう、ぶ; kun'yomi (native Japanese) おっと、それ.

How many strokes does 夫 have?

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

What level is the kanji 夫?

It appears at JLPT level N3, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in grade 4.

What is the radical of 夫?

The radical of 夫 is 大 (big), radical number 37 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 words use the kanji 夫?

Common words written with 夫 include 夫人 (ふじん, wife; Mrs; Madam); 夫婦 (ふうふ, married couple; husband and wife; man and wife); 夫妻 (ふさい, husband and wife; married couple).

Which kanji sound the same as 夫?

夫 shares a reading with 不 (ふ), 府 (ふ), 付 (ふ), 負 (ふ), 風 (ふ), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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