部
Components

剣 means 'sword'

Animation / stroke order not available.
CHALLENGE
BUILD
DRAW
MATCH
KEYWORDS
LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
Strokes : 10    Frequency: 899   JLPT: N1    Usefulness: 5    Study set: 5-7    Grade: 8   Intermediate lesson: -    Beginner lesson: -   Begins 53 words   Used in 101 words   Used in 206 names   Not used as a component
Jōyō (常用)
Common readings
On
   ケン
Kun
   つるぎ sword
Variants
劍   剑 (Chinese)  
Notes
A Joy o' Kanji essay is available for 剣 - click the badge to download
This packed-to-the-gills essay teaches everything about the Japanese sword, from its connections to Buddhism and samurai to its metaphorical role. You'll learn how people use 剣 and 刀 quite differently. Fantastic photos provide glimpses of sword-bearing martial arts, supplementing the discussion of kendo. In one quiz, you'll even consider which animals come equipped with swords!
Components
⿰  㑒 unanimous  刂 (刀) sword  
Explore these components visually on The Kanji Map ⇗
Mastery
LOG IN to view kanji mastery data
Flashcards
LOG IN to view your flashcards
Most useful words by reading
In the most useful 10,000 words in Japanese, 剣 is used 5 times, read 1 way.
Across all words in Japanese, 剣 is used 93 times, read 2 ways (with 1 variation).
Showing:
ケン : 89 words FIND ALL
し ん け ん 0
1. seriousness; earnestness
2. real sword (as opposed to unsharpened or wooden practice weapon)
(click the word to view an additional 2 forms, examples and links)
つるぎ : 3 words FIND ALL
noun
new moon; crescent moon  (poetical term; archaic)
(click the word for examples and links)
やいば: 1 word. FIND ALL
も ろ は の や い ば 0
noun
two-edged sword
(click the word to view an additional 1 form, examples and links)
An additional つるぎ less common words include 剣 but the reading has not yet been categorized.
Quick links
QUICK SEARCH WORD SEARCH KANJI SEARCH COMPONENT SEARCH Find kanji that refer to 剣
More information
Wiktionary ⇗ | Unicode.org ⇗ | Google Japan ⇗ | Hanziyuan etymology ⇗
Additional data
Henshall: 1214  Joy o' Kanji : 1214  Key to Kanji: 272 

Cascading kanji view

剣
ケン   つるぎ sword   
Please LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
㑒
ケン    unanimous   
Please LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
央
オウ    centre   
亼
assembly, gathering   
Please LOG IN to view this kanji's mnemonic
一
イチ   イツ   ひとつ    ひと- one   
人
ジン   ニン   ひと person   
刂
トウ   かたな sword   
Problem with this kanji? Question or comment? Please CONTACT US.
Kanshudo is your AI Japanese tutor, and your constant companion on the road to mastery of the Japanese language. To get started learning Japanese, just follow the study recommendations on your Dashboard. You can use Quick search (accessible using the icon at the top of every page) to look up any Japanese word, kanji or grammar point, as well as to find anything on Kanshudo quickly. For an overview, take the tour.
Search results include information from a variety of sources, including Kanshudo (kanji mnemonics, kanji readings, kanji components, vocab and name frequency data, grammar points, examples), JMdict (vocabulary), Tatoeba (examples), Enamdict (names), KanjiVG (kanji animations and stroke order), and Joy o' Kanji (kanji and radical synopses). Translations provided by Google's Neural Machine Translation engine. For more information see credits.
×