Kanji Library
Kanji VocabularyJLPT N1 › 惨

惨 — Wretched

JLPT N111 strokesSecondary school#1463 most used
wretched, disaster, cruelty, harsh
On’yomiサン (san)
On’yomiザン (zan)
Kun’yomiみじ (mijime)
Kun’yomiいた (itamu)
Kun’yomiむご (mugoi)

Stroke order (11 strokes)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

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

Common words using 惨

WordReadingMeaning
悲惨ひさん
hisan
disastrous; tragic; miserable
惨事さんじ
sanji
disaster; tragedy; tragic incident
惨敗ざんぱい
zanpai
ignominious defeat; crushing failure; utterly beaten
惨めみじめ
mijime
miserable; wretched; unhappy
惨状さんじょう
sanjou
disastrous scene; terrible spectacle
惨禍さんか
sanka
calamity; disaster; catastrophe

Study notes

惨 is a JLPT N1 kanji written with 11 strokes. It is taught at secondary-school level in Japan. Ranked #1463 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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