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Transition

On’yomiせん
Kun’yomiうつ.る・うつ.す・みやこがえ
MeaningsTransition, Move, Change
JLPT N1 15 strokes #1884 most common Secondary school Radical walk
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 遷

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

15 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 遷

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
=
Transition
Why it sounds the way it does. The part 西+大+己 is the phonetic component — it carries the sound rather than the meaning. That is why 遷 is read せん. 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 遷

Radical 162 of 214
Walk

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 遷 is filed under (walk) — radical number 162 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 辵

練習 · Practice

Drill 遷 right now

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Transition せん うつ.る・うつ.す・みやこがえ
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 遷

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.

遷す うつす to transfer (to a different place, group, etc.); to change; to move (something)
変遷 へんせん change; transition; vicissitudes
遷都 せんと relocation of the capital; transfer of the capital
遷宮 せんぐう installation of a deity in a new shrine; transfer of a shrine
遷る うつる to move (to another place or state); to change (e.g. of state, affiliation, scenery, etc.)
遷り変わる うつりかわる to change (with time, the ages, the seasons, etc.); to shift
左遷 させん demotion; relegation; reduction in rank
三遷 サンセン thrice moving from house to house
遷化 センゲ death (of a high priest)
遷移 センイ transition (esp. in scientific, computing, etc. contexts); succession
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 遷

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

画数 · 15 strokes

Other 15-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

遷 is the 1884th 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 遷

What does the kanji 遷 mean?

遷 means Transition, Move, Change. It is the 1884th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 遷?

遷 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) せん; kun'yomi (native Japanese) うつ.る、うつ.す、みやこがえ.

How many strokes does 遷 have?

遷 is written with 15 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 遷?

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

What is the radical of 遷?

The radical of 遷 is 辵 (walk), radical number 162 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.

Why is 遷 read せん?

遷 contains 西+大+己 as its phonetic component — the part that carries the sound rather than the meaning, which is why 遷 is read せん. 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 遷?

Common words written with 遷 include 遷す (うつす, to transfer (to a different place, group, etc.); to change; to move (something)); 変遷 (へんせん, change; transition; vicissitudes); 遷都 (せんと, relocation of the capital; transfer of the capital).

Which kanji sound the same as 遷?

遷 shares a reading with 選 (せん), 戦 (せん), 山 (せん), 先 (せん), 川 (せん), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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