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Second (1/60 Minute)

On’yomiびょう
JLPT N2 9 strokes #996 most common Grade 3 Radical grain
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 秒

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

9 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 秒

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 秒

Radical 115 of 214
Grain

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 秒 is filed under (grain) — radical number 115 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 禾

練習 · Practice

Drill 秒 right now

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Second (1/60 Minute) びょう
What does it mean?
Which kanji is it?
熟語 · In real words

Words that use 秒

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.

秒読み びょうよみ countdown
秒速 びょうそく speed per second; velocity per second; instant
毎秒 まいびょう every second
分秒 フンビョー moment
秒針 ビョーシン second hand (of clock)
寸秒 スンビョー a moment
閏秒 ウルービョー leap second
秒殺 ビョーサツ winning in a flash, instant defeat
うるう秒 ウルービョー leap second
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 秒

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

画数 · 9 strokes

Other 9-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

秒 is the 996th 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 秒

What does the kanji 秒 mean?

秒 means Second (1/60 Minute). It is the 996th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 秒?

秒 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) びょう.

How many strokes does 秒 have?

秒 is written with 9 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 秒?

It appears at JLPT level N2, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in grade 3.

What is the radical of 秒?

The radical of 秒 is 禾 (grain), radical number 115 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 秒 made of?

秒 is built from 禾 (two-branch tree radical (no. 115)) and 少 (few). 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 秒?

Common words written with 秒 include 秒読み (びょうよみ, countdown); 秒速 (びょうそく, speed per second; velocity per second; instant); 毎秒 (まいびょう, every second).

Which kanji sound the same as 秒?

秒 shares a reading with 平 (びょう), 病 (びょう), 描 (びょう), 妙 (びょう), 猫 (びょう), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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