休 — how to write the kanji for “rest”

休 means “rest”, “day off” and “retire”; it is a JLPT N5 kanji, taught in first grade in Japan. KANJIDIC2 gives it 1 on reading and 3 kun readings, so the word decides how you say it. Its parts sit side by side: 亻 (“person”), strokes 1–2; 木 (“tree”), strokes 3–6, each finished before the next. Read kyuu, it forms 休日 (“holiday”), 休暇 (“holiday”) and 休業 (“suspension of business”); the native reading yasu-mu gives 休み (“rest”) and 夏休み (“summer vacation”). Chinese reads it xiū, “to rest”, at HSK 1.

Strokes

6

JLPT

N5

Radical

人 (“person”)

On

キュウ

Kun

やす·まる, やす·む, やす·める