才
才 — Genius
genius, years old, cubic shaku
On’yomiサイ (sai)
Kun’yomi—
Stroke order (3 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 才
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 才能 | さいのう sainou | talent; ability |
| 天才 | てんさい tensai | genius; prodigy; natural gift |
| 才 | さい sai | ... years old; age (of) ... |
| 才 | さい sai | ability; gift; talent |
| 漫才 | まんざい manzai | manzai; comic dialogue; two-person comedy act, usu. presented as a fast-paced dialogue, occ. presented as a skit |
| 秀才 | しゅうさい shuusai | bright person; talented student; prodigy |
Study notes
才 is a JLPT N3 kanji written with 3 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 2), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #1497 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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