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Martyrdom

On’yomiじゅん
MeaningsMartyrdom, Follow By Resigning
JLPT N1 10 strokes #2021 most common Secondary school Radical death
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 殉

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

10 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 殉

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 殉 is read じゅん. 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 殉

Radical 78 of 214
Death

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 殉 is filed under (death) — radical number 78 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 歹

練習 · Practice

Drill 殉 right now

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Martyrdom じゅん
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 殉

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.

殉教 じゅんきょう martyrdom
殉職 じゅんしょく dying at one's post; being killed in the line of duty
殉難 じゅんなん martyrdom
殉国 ジュンコク dying for one's country
殉死 ジュンシ following one's master into the grave, committing suicide after one's lord has died
殉ぜ ジュンゼ to sacrifice oneself, to die a martyr
殉じ ジュンジ to sacrifice oneself, to die a martyr
殉え トナエ to recite, to chant; to cry, to yell, to shout; to advocate, to advance, to preach, to ins
殉ずれ ジュンズレ to sacrifice oneself, to die a martyr
殉じろ ジュンジロ to sacrifice oneself, to die a martyr
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 殉

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

画数 · 10 strokes

Other 10-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

殉 is the 2021st 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 殉

What does the kanji 殉 mean?

殉 means Martyrdom, Follow By Resigning. It is the 2021st most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 殉?

殉 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) じゅん.

How many strokes does 殉 have?

殉 is written with 10 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 殉?

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

What is the radical of 殉?

The radical of 殉 is 歹 (death), radical number 78 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 殉 made of?

殉 is built from 歹 (bare bone) and 旬 (decameron). Learning kanji as combinations of a few hundred reusable components is far more efficient than memorising each character as a separate shape.

Why is 殉 read じゅん?

殉 contains 旬 as its phonetic component — the part that carries the sound rather than the meaning, which is why 殉 is read じゅん. 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 殉?

Common words written with 殉 include 殉教 (じゅんきょう, martyrdom); 殉職 (じゅんしょく, dying at one's post; being killed in the line of duty); 殉難 (じゅんなん, martyrdom).

Which kanji sound the same as 殉?

殉 shares a reading with 準 (じゅん), 順 (じゅん), 純 (じゅん), 旬 (じゅん), 巡 (じゅん), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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