Jisho

×

7 strokes
Radical:
knife, sword 刀 (刂)
Parts:
Variants:
first time, beginning
Jōyō kanji, taught in grade 4
JLPT level N3
152 of 2500 most used kanji in newspapers

Speed

Stroke order

On reading compounds

  • 初夏 【ショカ】 early summer, fourth month of the lunar calendar
  • 初演 【ショエン】 first performance
  • 年初 【ネンショ】 beginning of the year
  • 原初 【ゲンショ】 origin, source, beginning, starting point

Kun reading compounds

  • 始め 【はじめ】 beginning, start, outset, opening, first (in line, etc.), origin, such as ..., not to mention ...
  • 初めて 【はじめて】 for the first time, only after ... is it ..., only when ... do you ..., not until ... do you ..., first time, (one's) first
  • 月初め 【つきはじめ】 beginning of the month
  • 初めて 【はじめて】 for the first time, only after ... is it ..., only when ... do you ..., not until ... do you ..., first time, (one's) first
  • 初 【はつ】 first, new
  • 初夏 【しょか】 early summer, fourth month of the lunar calendar
  • 業界初 【ぎょうかいはつ】 the industry's first ...
  • 人生初 【じんせいはつ】 (for the) first time in one's life

Readings

Japanese names:
し、 はっ
Mandarin Chinese (pinyin):
chu1
Korean:
cho

Spanish

  • comienzo
  • primero

Portuguese

  • primeiros tempos
  • começo

French

  • première fois
  • commencement
428 A Guide To Reading and Writing Japanese (Florence Sakade)
535 A Guide To Reading and Writing Japanese 3rd edition (Henshall, Seeley and De Groot)
507 A Guide To Remembering Japanese Characters (Kenneth G. Henshall)
261 A New Dictionary of Kanji Usage
4215 Classic Nelson (Andrew Nelson)
636 Essential Kanji (P.G. O’Neill)
353 Japanese Kanji Flashcards (Max Hodges and Tomoko Okazaki)
427 Japanese Names (P.G. O’Neill)
2.20 Japanese for Busy People
679 Kanji and Kana (Spahn and Hadamitzky)
692 Kanji and Kana, 2nd Edition (Spahn and Hadamitzky)
440 Kanji in Context (Nishiguchi and Kono)
181 Kodansha Compact Kanji Guide
1433 Kodansha Kanji Dictionary (Jack Halpern)
759 Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary (Jack Halpern)
1031 Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary, 2nd Edition (Jack Halpern)
411 Les Kanjis dans la tete (Yves Maniette)
1911 Morohashi
1116 New Japanese English Character Dictionary (Jack Halpern)
469 New Nelson (John Haig)
404 Remembering The Kanji (James Heisig)
431 Remembering The Kanji, 6th edition (James Heisig)
279 The Kanji Way to Japanese Language Power (Dale Crowley)
483 Tuttle Kanji Cards (Alexander Kask)
645 2001 Kanji
5e2.1 The Kanji Dictionary
1-5-2 SKIP code
3722.0 Four corner code
1-29-73 JIS X 0208-1997 kuten code
521d Unicode hex code

Speed

Stroke order

On reading compounds

  • 蝉声 【センセイ】 cicada singing
  • 秋蝉 【アキゼミ】 cicadas that sing when autumn comes
  • 寒蝉 【カンゼミ】 cicadas which sing in late autumn
  • 寒蝉 【カンゼミ】 cicadas which sing in late autumn

Kun reading compounds

  • 蝉 【せみ】 cicada, locust, small-sized pulley
  • 蝉海老 【せみえび】 blunt slipper lobster (species of shovel-nosed lobster, Scyllarides squammosus)
  • 空蝉 【うつせみ】 one's present existence, this mortal frame, this world, this life, temporal things, cast-off cicada shell, cicada
  • 秋の蝉 【あきのせみ】 cicadas that sing when autumn comes, cicadas that sing even in autumn

Readings

Mandarin Chinese (pinyin):
chan2
Korean:
seon

Spanish

  • cigarra

Portuguese

French

4190 Classic Nelson (Andrew Nelson)
1774 Kodansha Kanji Dictionary (Jack Halpern)
33616 Morohashi
5349 New Nelson (John Haig)
2692 Remembering The Kanji (James Heisig)
2731 Remembering The Kanji, 6th edition (James Heisig)
6d12.3 The Kanji Dictionary
1-6-9 SKIP code
1-6-12 SKIP code
5615.6 Four corner code
1-32-70 JIS X 0208-1997 kuten code
8749 Unicode hex code