Kanji Library
Kanji VocabularyJLPT N2 › 州

州 — State

JLPT N26 strokesGrade 3#386 most used
state, province
On’yomiシュウ (shuu)
On’yomi (su)
Kun’yomi (su)

Stroke order (6 strokes)

1 2 3 4 5 6

Watch the strokes draw themselves in the correct order — numbers mark where each stroke starts. Diagram from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA).

Common words using 州

WordReadingMeaning
欧州おうしゅう
oushuu
Europe
しゅう
shuu
state (of the US, Australia, India, Germany, etc.); province (e.g. of Canada); county (e.g. of the UK)
九州きゅうしゅう
kyuushuu
Kyūshū (southernmost of the four main islands of Japan)
州都しゅうと
shuuto
state capital; provincial capital; county town
州政府しゅうせいふ
shuuseifu
state government
広州こうしゅう
koushuu
Guangzhou (China); Canton

Study notes

州 is a JLPT N2 kanji written with 6 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 3), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #386 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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