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Kanji Detail for 川 - "river, stream"

川

  • Meaning

    川 means "river, stream."

    1. River - A flow of water; a stream.

    2. Stream - A continuous flow of water.

    3. Waterway - A channel for water.

  • Words using 川

    • 小川 おがわ Listen stream; brook; creek
    • 河川 かせん Listen rivers
    • 谷川 たにがわ Listen mountain stream
    • 川上 かわかみ Listen upper reaches of a river; upstream
    • 川柳 せんりゅう Listen senryū; comic haiku; humorous seventeen-mora poem
    • 川端 かわばた Listen riverside; riverbank
    • 河川敷 かせんじき Listen flood plain; river terrace; riverside area
    • 川沿い かわぞい Listen along the river; riverside

  • Four-character idioms with 川

    • 山川草木 さんせんそうもく Listen nature; natural scenery

  • Origin of 川

    A pictograph of a river: three lines of current flowing between two banks.

    How to remember it: Three streams of current running side by side — a river seen from above.

    Sources: en.wiktionary.org · mojinavi.com

  • Tattoo check: 川

    • Verified meaning: river, stream
    • Official Jōyō kanji — a standard character every Japanese reader recognises
    • Used in real Japanese given names (read かわ, かわかつ, かわさき, かわざき)

    A single kanji rarely maps one-to-one onto an English word. Read the meanings and associations above as a set — a character that fits the dictionary definition can still carry a connotation you did not intend.

  • Name readings of 川

    Surnames 川(かわ)Listen 川(かわかつ)Listen 川(かわさき)Listen 川(かわざき)Listen 川(かわすみ)Listen 川(かわずみ)Listen 川(かわたか)Listen 川(かわやなぎ)Listen 川(さきがわ)Listen

  • Compare with other kanji that mean the same thing:

  • Dictionary Citations

    The meaning above is based on the following sources:

    KANJIDIC2 A comprehensive Japanese-English kanji dictionary

    stream; river; river or three-stroke river radical (no. 47)

    Unihan Unicode Han Database for CJK characters

    stream, river; flow; boil

    CC-CEDICT A Chinese-English dictionary

    abbr. for Sichuan Province 四川[Si4 chuan1] in southwest China

    Make Me a Hanzi Open-source Chinese character data

    stream, river

    XSZD Xuéshēng Zìdiǎn (學生字典) - Student's Dictionary

    Water flowing through the earth is called 川. Between two mountains there must be a river. See (Rites of Zhou). Now used as a general term for flowing water. Rivers like the Yangtze, Huai, Yellow, and Han are all called 川. | Water flows unceasingly, hence what continues without stopping is called 常川. | Abbreviation for Sichuan Province.

  • Onyomi

    tip

    sen(セン) セン

  • Kunyomi

    tip

    kawa(かわ) かわ

  • Strokes

    tip

    3 strokes

  • Radical

    tip

    巛 川 (kawa・magekawa・magarigawa)

  • Related Keywords

    river stream brook bank channel confluence current delta estuary floodplain flow freshwater irrigation meander rapids source tributary waterway

Sentences including 川

  • I was swimming in the river.

  • They live across the river.

  • The man swimming in the river is my friend.

  • The river flows slowly to the sea.

  • A big bridge was built over the river.

  • He said ,'' let's take a walk along the river.''

  • The river is deep here.

  • His plan is to build a bridge over that river.

  • We went swimming in the river yesterday.

  • He swam across the river.

Sentences from Japanese classical masterpieces

More kanji with the radical 巛 川 (kawa・magekawa・magarigawa)

See all kanji with this radical →

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