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Split

On’yomiれつ
Kun’yomiさ.く・さ.ける・-ぎ.れ
MeaningsSplit, Rend, Tear
JLPT N1 12 strokes #1022 most common Secondary school Radical clothes
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 裂

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

12 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 裂

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 裂 is read れつ. 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 裂

Radical 145 of 214
Clothes

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 裂 is filed under (clothes) — radical number 145 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 衣

練習 · Practice

Drill 裂 right now

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Split れつ さ.く・さ.ける・-ぎ.れ
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 裂

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.

分裂 ぶんれつ split; division; break up
亀裂 きれつ crack; crevice; fissure
龜裂 きれつ crack; crevice; fissure
き裂 きれつ crack; crevice; fissure
決裂 けつれつ breakdown (of talks, negotiations, etc.); breaking off; rupture
破裂 はれつ bursting; rupture; explosion
核分裂 かくぶんれつ nuclear fission; karyokinesis (division of a cell nucleus during mitosis or meiosis)
裂目 さけめ tear; rip; rent
裂け目 さけめ tear; rip; rent
四分五裂 しぶんごれつ torn asunder; disrupted and disorganized
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 裂

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

画数 · 12 strokes

Other 12-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

裂 is the 1022nd 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 裂

What does the kanji 裂 mean?

裂 means Split, Rend, Tear. It is the 1022nd most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 裂?

裂 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) れつ; kun'yomi (native Japanese) さ.く、さ.ける、-ぎ.れ.

How many strokes does 裂 have?

裂 is written with 12 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 裂?

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

What is the radical of 裂?

The radical of 裂 is 衣 (clothes), radical number 145 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 裂 made of?

裂 is built from 列 (file) and 衣 (garment). Learning kanji as combinations of a few hundred reusable components is far more efficient than memorising each character as a separate shape.

Why is 裂 read れつ?

裂 contains 列 as its phonetic component — the part that carries the sound rather than the meaning, which is why 裂 is read れつ. 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 裂?

Common words written with 裂 include 分裂 (ぶんれつ, split; division; break up); 亀裂 (きれつ, crack; crevice; fissure); 龜裂 (きれつ, crack; crevice; fissure).

Which kanji sound the same as 裂?

裂 shares a reading with 列 (れつ), 烈 (れつ), 劣 (れつ), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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