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Capital

On’yomiきょう・けい・きん
Kun’yomiみやこ
MeaningsCapital, 10**16
8 strokes #74 most common Grade 2 Radical lid
書き順 · Stroke order

How to write 京

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

8 strokes
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分解 · What it is made of

The parts of 京

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 京

Radical 8 of 214
Lid

The radical is the part a paper dictionary files a kanji under, and it usually hints at meaning. 京 is filed under (lid) — radical number 8 of the 214 in the Kangxi system.

Other kanji built on 亠

練習 · Practice

Drill 京 right now

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

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Capital きょう・けい・きん みやこ
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熟語 · In real words

Words that use 京

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.

東京 とうきょう Tokyo
北京 ペキン Beijing (China); Peking
京都 きょうと Kyoto (city, prefecture)
東京証券取引所 とうきょうしょうけんとりひきじょ Tokyo Stock Exchange; TSE
中京 ちゅうきょう Nagoya (city); Chūkyō metropolitan area (most of Aichi, and parts of Gifu and Mie prefectu
在京 ざいきょう being in the capital (i.e. Tokyo, or formerly Kyoto)
上京 じょうきょう going (up) to the capital; going to Tokyo
帰京 ききょう returning (home) to Tokyo; returning to the capital
京劇 きょうげき classical Chinese opera
京阪 けいはん Kyoto and Osaka; Kyoto-Osaka area
名乗り · Name readings

How 京 is read in names

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

たか
同音 · Sound-alikes

Kanji that sound like 京

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

地名 · In place names

Japanese towns written with 京

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

画数 · 8 strokes

Other 8-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

京 is the 74th 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 京

What does the kanji 京 mean?

京 means Capital, 10**16. It is the 74th most common kanji in written Japanese.

How do you read the kanji 京?

京 is read on'yomi (Chinese-derived) きょう、けい、きん; kun'yomi (native Japanese) みやこ.

How many strokes does 京 have?

京 is written with 8 strokes. The animated diagram on this page shows the correct order.

What level is the kanji 京?

Japanese schoolchildren learn it in grade 2.

What is the radical of 京?

The radical of 京 is 亠 (lid), radical number 8 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 words use the kanji 京?

Common words written with 京 include 東京 (とうきょう, Tokyo); 北京 (ペキン, Beijing (China); Peking); 京都 (きょうと, Kyoto (city, prefecture)).

Which kanji sound the same as 京?

京 shares a reading with 経 (きょう), 強 (きょう), 協 (きょう), 教 (きょう), 共 (きょう), among others. Same-sounding kanji are one of the most common sources of confusion in Japanese.

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