町 — how to write the kanji for “town”

町 means “town”, “village” and “block”; it is a JLPT N4 kanji, taught in first grade in Japan. In newspapers it is the 292nd most used kanji. Its parts sit side by side: 田 (“rice field”, its radical), strokes 1–5; 丁 (“street”), strokes 6–7, each finished before the next. On its own it is the word machi, “town; block”. Read chou, it forms 市町村 (“cities, towns and villages”), 同町 (“the same town”) and 町長 (“town mayor”); the native reading machi gives 下町 (“low-lying part of a city”) and 町並み (“townscape”). Chinese reads it tǐng, “raised path between fields”.

Strokes

7

JLPT

N4

Radical

田 (“rice field”)

On

チョウ

Kun

まち