川 — how to write the kanji for “stream”

川 means “stream”, “river” and “river or three-stroke river radical”; it is a JLPT N5 kanji, taught in first grade in Japan. In newspapers it is the 181st most used kanji. It is also where hiragana つ and katakana ツ came from. KANJIDIC2 files it under the radical 巛 (“curving river radical”). On its own it is the word kawa, “river; stream”. Its native reading kawa leads in its common words, as in 小川 (“stream”) and 谷川 (“mountain stream”); read sen it forms 河川 (“rivers”). Chinese reads it chuān, “river”, at HSK 7-9.

Strokes

3

JLPT

N5

Radical

巛 (“curving river radical”)

On

セン

Kun

かわ