Nihoner
漢字 Kanji list Games
Log in Play Kanji Duel

Sutra

On’yomiけい・きょう・きん
Kun’yomiへ.る・た.つ・たていと・はか.る・のり
MeaningsSutra, Longitude, Pass Thru, Expire, Warp
JLPT N3 11 strokes #79 most common Grade 5 Radical silk
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 経

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

11 strokes
✎ Now write it yourself

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

分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 経

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 経 is read けい. 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 経

Radical 120 of 214
Silk

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 経 is filed under (silk) — radical number 120 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 糸

練習 · Practice

Drill 経 right now

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

0Streak
0Best
0Correct
Tap to reveal
Sutra けい・きょう・きん へ.る・た.つ・たていと・はか.る・のり
What does it mean?
Which kanji is it?
熟語 · In real words

Words that use 経

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.

経済 けいざい economy; economics; finance
経営 けいえい management; administration; operation
経験 けいけん experience
経費 けいひ expenses; expenditure; outgoings
経営者 けいえいしゃ manager; proprietor
経常 けいじょう ordinary
経緯 けいい details; particulars; sequence of events
経済的 けいざいてき economic; financial; economical
日経 にっけい Nikkei (newspaper, share index)
経過 けいか passage (of time); elapsing; lapse
名乗り · Name readings

How 経 is read in names

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

つねのぶ
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 経

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

画数 · 11 strokes

Other 11-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

経 is the 79th most common kanji in written Japanese. Learning in frequency order is the fastest route to reading real text.

Think you know which kanji is more common?

Kanji Duel pits 経 and 3,000 others head to head. One life. How long can you last?

Enter the Duel →
質問 · Questions

About the kanji 経

What does the kanji 経 mean?

経 means Sutra, Longitude, Pass Thru, Expire, Warp. It is the 79th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 経?

経 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) けい、きょう、きん; kun'yomi (native Japanese) へ.る、た.つ、たていと、はか.る、のり.

How many strokes does 経 have?

経 is written with 11 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 経?

It appears at JLPT level N3, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in grade 5.

What is the radical of 経?

The radical of 経 is 糸 (silk), radical number 120 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 経 made of?

経 is built from 糸 (thread) and 圣 (holy). Learning kanji as combinations of a few hundred reusable components is far more efficient than memorising each character as a separate shape.

Why is 経 read けい?

経 contains 圣 as its phonetic component — the part that carries the sound rather than the meaning, which is why 経 is read けい. 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 経?

Common words written with 経 include 経済 (けいざい, economy; economics; finance); 経営 (けいえい, management; administration; operation); 経験 (けいけん, experience).

Which kanji sound the same as 経?

経 shares a reading with 京 (けい), 強 (きょう), 協 (きょう), 教 (きょう), 共 (きょう), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

None of this is being saved

Signed in, we would remember every character you have looked at — and write you reading you can actually get through, built from exactly those.

Start remembering — free
Free account · 3 passages a day · no card