米
米 — Rice
rice, USA, metre
On’yomiベイ (bei)
On’yomiマイ (mai)
On’yomiメエトル (meetoru)
Kun’yomiこめ (kome)
Kun’yomiよね (yone)
Stroke order (6 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 米
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 日米 | にちべい nichibei | Japan and the United States; Japanese-American |
| 米国 | べいこく beikoku | (United States of) America; USA; US |
| 全米 | ぜんべい zenbei | all-America; pan-American; all of America |
| 対米 | たいべい taibei | relating to the USA; toward America; with America |
| 訪米 | ほうべい houbei | visit to the United States |
| 中南米 | ちゅうなんべい chuunanbei | Central and South America |
Study notes
米 is a JLPT N3 kanji written with 6 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 2), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #61 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).
🔊 Tap the big kanji, any reading or any example word to hear it.