Kanji Library
Kanji VocabularyJLPT N1 › 曹

曹 — Office

JLPT N111 strokesSecondary school#1998 most used
office, official, comrade, fellow
On’yomiソウ (sou)
On’yomiゾウ (zou)
Kun’yomi

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 曹

WordReadingMeaning
法曹ほうそう
housou
legal profession; judicial officer; lawyer
法曹界ほうそうかい
housoukai
legal circles
軍曹ぐんそう
gunsou
sergeant
御曹司おんぞうし
onzoushi
son of a distinguished family; son of a noble

Study notes

曹 is a JLPT N1 kanji written with 11 strokes. It is taught at secondary-school level in Japan. Ranked #1998 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).

← 峻 high詠 recitation →

🔊 Tap the big kanji, any reading or any example word to hear it.