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Undefiled

On’yomiけつ
Kun’yomiいさぎよ.い
MeaningsUndefiled, Pure, Clean, Righteous, Gallant
JLPT N1 15 strokes #1555 most common Grade 5 Radical water
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 潔

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

15 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 潔

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 潔 is read けつ. 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 潔

Radical 85 of 214
Water

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 潔 is filed under (water) — radical number 85 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 水

練習 · Practice

Drill 潔 right now

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Undefiled けつ いさぎよ.い
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 潔

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.

清潔 せいけつ clean; hygienic; sanitary
簡潔 かんけつ concise; brief; succinct
潔白 けっぱく innocence; guiltlessness; purity
潔い いさぎよい gracious (defeat, apology, etc.); graceful; honourable (e.g. death)
潔良い いさぎよい gracious (defeat, apology, etc.); graceful; honourable (e.g. death)
潔よい いさぎよい gracious (defeat, apology, etc.); graceful; honourable (e.g. death)
不潔 ふけつ unclean; dirty; unsanitary
潔癖 けっぺき fastidiousness; love of cleanliness; uprightness
高潔 こうけつ noble; lofty; high-minded
廉潔 れんけつ honest; incorruptible; integrity
名乗り · Name readings

How 潔 is read in names

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

きよきよし
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 潔

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

画数 · 15 strokes

Other 15-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

潔 is the 1555th 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 潔

What does the kanji 潔 mean?

潔 means Undefiled, Pure, Clean, Righteous, Gallant. It is the 1555th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 潔?

潔 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) けつ; kun'yomi (native Japanese) いさぎよ.い.

How many strokes does 潔 have?

潔 is written with 15 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 潔?

It appears at JLPT level N1, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in grade 5.

What is the radical of 潔?

The radical of 潔 is 水 (water), radical number 85 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 潔 made of?

潔 is built from 氵 (water) and 絜 (marking line). Learning kanji as combinations of a few hundred reusable components is far more efficient than memorising each character as a separate shape.

Why is 潔 read けつ?

潔 contains 絜 as its phonetic component — the part that carries the sound rather than the meaning, which is why 潔 is read けつ. 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 潔?

Common words written with 潔 include 清潔 (せいけつ, clean; hygienic; sanitary); 簡潔 (かんけつ, concise; brief; succinct); 潔白 (けっぱく, innocence; guiltlessness; purity).

Which kanji sound the same as 潔?

潔 shares a reading with 決 (けつ), 結 (けつ), 血 (けつ), 欠 (けつ), 穴 (けつ), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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