Kanji Library
Kanji VocabularyJLPT N1 › 紫

紫 — Purple

JLPT N112 strokesSecondary school#1516 most used
purple, violet
On’yomi (shi)
Kun’yomiむらさき (murasaki)

Stroke order (12 strokes)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

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

Common words using 紫

WordReadingMeaning
むらさき
murasaki
purple; violet; purple gromwell (Lithospermum erythrorhizon)
紫外線しがいせん
shigaisen
ultraviolet rays; ultraviolet radiation; UV radiation
紫色むらさきいろ
murasakiiro
purple; violet
紫陽花あじさい
ajisai
bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla); French hydrangea
紫綬褒章しじゅほうしょう
shijuhoushou
Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon (awarded for scholarly or artistic achievement)
紫紺しこん
shikon
dark purple; bluish purple

Study notes

紫 is a JLPT N1 kanji written with 12 strokes. It is taught at secondary-school level in Japan. Ranked #1516 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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