丸
丸 — Round
round, full (month), perfection, -ship, pills, make round
On’yomiガン (gan)
Kun’yomiまる (maru)
Kun’yomiまるめる (marumeru)
Kun’yomiまるい (marui)
Stroke order (3 strokes)
Watch the strokes draw themselves in the correct order — numbers mark where each stroke starts. Diagram from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA).
Common words using 丸
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 日の丸 | ひのまる hinomaru | red or gold circle representing the Sun; national flag of Japan; Japanese flag |
| 丸刈り | まるがり marugari | buzz cut; close crop |
| 丸太 | まるた maruta | log; dace (Tribolodon hakonensis); test subject (of human experiments performed by Unit 731 during WWII) |
| 一丸 | いちがん ichigan | one lump; one body; one group |
| 丸い | まるい marui | round; circular; spherical |
| 丸 | まる maru | circle; entirety; whole |
Study notes
丸 is a JLPT N2 kanji written with 3 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 2), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #542 of the 2,500 most frequent kanji in newspapers. On’yomi (音読み) are Chinese-derived readings mostly used in compound words; kun’yomi (訓読み) are native Japanese readings, with any highlighted part written in hiragana after the kanji (okurigana).
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