水 — how to write the kanji for “water”
水 (“water”) is a JLPT N5 kanji taught in first grade in Japan. In newspapers it is the 223rd most used kanji. As one of the 214 traditional radicals it heads 656 kanji in KANJIDIC2. On its own it is the word mizu, “water; fluid”. Its common words take the reading sui: 水準 (“level”), 水道 (“water supply”), 水面 (“water's surface”) and 水泳 (“swimming”). Chinese reads it shuǐ, “water”, at HSK 1.
- Strokes
- 4
- JLPT
- N5
- Radical
- 水 (“water”)
- On
- スイ
- Kun
- みず-, みず
Stroke by stroke
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Vertical hook ㇚topdownwards
- Horizontal then left-falling ㇇leftrightwards → down and left
- Left-falling stroke ㇒top rightdown and left
- Right-falling stroke ㇏centerdown and right
Japanese and Chinese
Japanese and Chinese draw all 4 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.
Under the radical 水
Trace it
Follow the numbers. Tracing help
Readings
- On (Chinese-derived)
- スイ sui
- Kun (native)
- みず- mizu-, みず mizu (rare)
- Meanings
- water
- Read sui
- 水準 水道 水面 水泳 水田 水産
- School year
- first grade
- Newspaper rank
- 223rd of 2,500 (KANJIDIC2)
- Korean hanja
- 수 su
- Common words
- 109 in JMdict
Words with 水
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 水準 | すいじゅん suijun | level; standard |
| 水道 | すいどう suidou | water supply; water service |
| 水面 | すいめん suimen | water's surface |
| 水泳 | すいえい suiei | swimming |
| 水田 | すいでん suiden | (water-filled) paddy field |
| 水俣病 | みなまたびょう minamatabyou | Minamata disease |
| 水産 | すいさん suisan | aquatic products; fisheries |
| 水質 | すいしつ suishitsu | water quality |
| 排水 | はいすい haisui | drainage; draining |
| 洪水 | こうずい kouzui | flood; flooding |
Most common first (JMdict).
Practice sheet
Print at 100%. Several kanji: worksheet maker.
Keep going
JLPT N5, in list order: