頭
頭 — Head
head, counter for large animals
On’yomiトウ (tou)
On’yomiズ (zu)
On’yomiト (to)
Kun’yomiあたま (atama)
Kun’yomiかしら (kashira)
Kun’yomi-がしら (gashira)
Kun’yomiかぶり (kaburi)
Stroke order (16 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 頭
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 冒頭 | ぼうとう boutou | beginning; opening; start |
| 先頭 | せんとう sentou | head (of a line, group, etc.); front; lead |
| 店頭 | てんとう tentou | shopfront; storefront; shopwindow |
| 頭取 | とうどり toudori | (bank) president; greenroom manager (in a theater) |
| 街頭 | がいとう gaitou | (on the) street |
| 念頭 | ねんとう nentou | (on one's) mind; heed |
Study notes
頭 is a JLPT N3 kanji written with 16 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 2), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #433 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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