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Carrier

On’yomiはん
MeaningsCarrier, Carry, All, General, Sort, Kind
JLPT N2 10 strokes #640 most common Secondary school Radical boat
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 般

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 般

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 般

Radical 137 of 214
Boat

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 般 is filed under (boat) — radical number 137 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 舟

練習 · Practice

Drill 般 right now

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Carrier はん
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 般

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.

一般 いっぱん general; universal; ordinary
一般的 いっぱんてき general; popular; common
全般 ぜんぱん (the) whole; as a whole; in general
先般 せんぱん some time ago; the other day
諸般 しょはん various; several
般若 はんにゃ prajna (wisdom required to attain enlightenment); hannya; mask of a grinning, horned demon
今般 こんぱん now; recently; this time
一般人 いっぱんじん ordinary person; member of the general public; non-celebrity
一般に いっぱんに generally; in general; widely
般化 ハンカ generalization (psychology, linguistics, etc.)
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 般

Japanese has far more kanji than syllables, so one reading is shared by many characters. These are the ones you will confuse with 般 — 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

般 is the 640th 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 般

What does the kanji 般 mean?

般 means Carrier, Carry, All, General, Sort, Kind. It is the 640th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 般?

般 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) はん.

How many strokes does 般 have?

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

What level is the kanji 般?

It appears at JLPT level N2, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in secondary school.

What is the radical of 般?

The radical of 般 is 舟 (boat), radical number 137 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 般 made of?

般 is built from 舟 (boat) and 殳 (pike). 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 般?

Common words written with 般 include 一般 (いっぱん, general; universal; ordinary); 一般的 (いっぱんてき, general; popular; common); 全般 (ぜんぱん, (the) whole; as a whole; in general).

Which kanji sound the same as 般?

般 shares a reading with 反 (はん), 判 (はん), 半 (はん), 阪 (はん), 販 (はん), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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