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Orchid

On’yomiらん・ら
MeaningsOrchid, Holland
JLPT N1 19 strokes #1833 most common Name kanji Radical grass
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 蘭

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

19 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 蘭

Almost every kanji is built from a small set of reusable parts. Learn the parts once and you stop memorising thousands of unrelated shapes.

radical grass
+ bottom rise high =
Orchid
部首 · Radical

The radical of 蘭

Radical 140 of 214
Grass

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 蘭 is filed under (grass) — radical number 140 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 艸

練習 · Practice

Drill 蘭 right now

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

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Orchid らん・ら
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 蘭

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.

蘭学 らんがく rangaku; study of Western knowledge through the Dutch language during the Edo period
蘭月 ランゲツ seventh lunar month
蘭方 ランポー Western medicine (as introduced to Japan by the Dutch during the Edo period)
金蘭 キンラン golden orchid (Cephalanthera falcata), kinran; very close friendship
蘭領 ランリョー Dutch territory, Dutch possession
安蘭 アラン Alan (member of an ancient Scythian people)
海蘭 ウンラン Linaria japonica (species of toadflax)
蘭州 ランシュー Lanzhou (China)
葉蘭 ハラン cast iron plant (Aspidistra elatior); baran
英蘭 エーラン England; the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, British-Dutch
名乗り · Name readings

How 蘭 is read in names

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

あららぎ
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 蘭

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

地名 · In place names

Japanese towns written with 蘭

Place names are where kanji readings get strange — and where you meet this character in the wild.

画数 · 19 strokes

Other 19-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

蘭 is the 1833rd 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 蘭

What does the kanji 蘭 mean?

蘭 means Orchid, Holland. It is the 1833rd most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 蘭?

蘭 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) らん、ら.

How many strokes does 蘭 have?

蘭 is written with 19 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 蘭?

It appears at JLPT level N1, and Japanese schoolchildren learn it in name kanji.

What is the radical of 蘭?

The radical of 蘭 is 艸 (grass), radical number 140 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 蘭 made of?

蘭 is built from 艹 (grass) and 闌 (rise high). 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 蘭?

Common words written with 蘭 include 蘭学 (らんがく, rangaku; study of Western knowledge through the Dutch language during the Edo period); 蘭月 (ランゲツ, seventh lunar month); 蘭方 (ランポー, Western medicine (as introduced to Japan by the Dutch during the Edo period)).

Which kanji sound the same as 蘭?

蘭 shares a reading with 乱 (らん), 卵 (らん), 覧 (らん), 裸 (ら), 羅 (ら), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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