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Halberd

On’yomiむ・ぼう
Kun’yomiほこ
MeaningsHalberd, Arms, Festival Float
JLPT N1 5 strokes #1501 most common Secondary school Radical spear
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 矛

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

5 strokes
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Draw it on screen and be marked on stroke order and direction.

分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 矛

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 矛

Radical 110 of 214
Spear

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 矛 is filed under (spear) — radical number 110 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

練習 · Practice

Drill 矛 right now

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

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Halberd む・ぼう ほこ
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 矛

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.

矛盾 むじゅん contradiction; inconsistency
矛楯 むじゅん contradiction; inconsistency
矛先 ほこさき point of a spear; spearhead; focus (of one's attack, criticism, etc.)
銅矛 ドーホコ bronze hoko, bronze halberd, bronze spearhead
槌矛 ツチボコ mace
鎚矛 ツチホコ mace
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 矛

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

画数 · 5 strokes

Other 5-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

矛 is the 1501st 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 矛

What does the kanji 矛 mean?

矛 means Halberd, Arms, Festival Float. It is the 1501st most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 矛?

矛 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) む、ぼう; kun'yomi (native Japanese) ほこ.

How many strokes does 矛 have?

矛 is written with 5 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 矛?

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

What is the radical of 矛?

The radical of 矛 is 矛 (spear), radical number 110 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 矛 made of?

矛 is built from 予 (beforehand) and 丿 (katakana no radical (no. 4)). 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 矛?

Common words written with 矛 include 矛盾 (むじゅん, contradiction; inconsistency); 矛楯 (むじゅん, contradiction; inconsistency); 矛先 (ほこさき, point of a spear; spearhead; focus (of one's attack, criticism, etc.)).

Which kanji sound the same as 矛?

矛 shares a reading with 務 (む), 無 (む), 防 (ぼう), 武 (む), 望 (ぼう), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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