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Leap

On’yomiやく
Kun’yomiおど.る
MeaningsLeap, Dance, Skip
JLPT N1 21 strokes #883 most common Secondary school Radical foot
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 躍

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

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

分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 躍

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 躍 is read やく. 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 躍

Radical 157 of 214
Foot

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 躍 is filed under (foot) — radical number 157 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 足

練習 · Practice

Drill 躍 right now

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

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Leap やく おど.る
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 躍

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.

活躍 かつやく activity (esp. energetic or successful); great efforts; active participation
飛躍 ひやく leap; jump; stepping out into the wider world
躍進 やくしん making rapid progress; making great advances; rush
一躍 いちやく suddenly (rising to fame, etc.); instantly; immediately
躍起 やっき desperate; frantic; excited
躍り おどり leaping; jumping; spring
躍動 やくどう lively motion; throb
跳躍 ちょうやく jump; leap; skip
躍如 やくじょ vivid; lifelike; graphic
暗躍 あんやく secret manoeuvres (maneuvers); operating behind the scenes
名乗り · Name readings

How 躍 is read in names

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

おどり
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 躍

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

画数 · 21 strokes

Other 21-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

躍 is the 883rd 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 躍

What does the kanji 躍 mean?

躍 means Leap, Dance, Skip. It is the 883rd most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 躍?

躍 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) やく; kun'yomi (native Japanese) おど.る.

How many strokes does 躍 have?

躍 is written with 21 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 躍?

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

What is the radical of 躍?

The radical of 躍 is 足 (foot), radical number 157 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 躍 made of?

躍 is built from 足 (leg) and 翟 (surname). Learning kanji as combinations of a few hundred reusable components is far more efficient than memorising each character as a separate shape.

Why is 躍 read やく?

躍 contains 翟 as its phonetic component — the part that carries the sound rather than the meaning, which is why 躍 is read やく. 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 躍?

Common words written with 躍 include 活躍 (かつやく, activity (esp. energetic or successful); great efforts; active participation); 飛躍 (ひやく, leap; jump; stepping out into the wider world); 躍進 (やくしん, making rapid progress; making great advances; rush).

Which kanji sound the same as 躍?

躍 shares a reading with 約 (やく), 役 (やく), 益 (やく), 薬 (やく), 訳 (やく), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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