荒
荒 — Laid waste
laid waste, rough, rude, wild
On’yomiコウ (kou)
Kun’yomiあらす (arasu)
Kun’yomiあれる (areru)
Kun’yomiあらい (arai)
Kun’yomiすさぶ (susabu)
Kun’yomiすさむ (susamu)
Stroke order (9 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 荒
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 荒木 | あらき araki | logs in bark; rough wood; unseasoned timber |
| 荒廃 | こうはい kouhai | ruin; destruction; devastation |
| 荒い | あらい arai | rough; wild; violent |
| 荒っぽい | あらっぽい arappoi | wild; violent; rough-mannered |
| 荒らす | あらす arasu | to lay waste; to devastate; to damage |
| 荒れる | あれる areru | to become stormy; to become rough (of the sea); to fall into ruin |
Study notes
荒 is a JLPT N2 kanji written with 9 strokes. It is taught at secondary-school level in Japan. Ranked #1099 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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