Kanji Library
Kanji VocabularyJLPT N3 › 葉

葉 — Leaf

JLPT N312 strokesGrade 3#414 most used
leaf, plane, lobe, needle, blade, spear
On’yomiヨウ (you)
Kun’yomi (ha)

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 葉

WordReadingMeaning
言葉ことば
kotoba
language; dialect; word

ha
leaf; blade (of grass); (pine) needle
青葉あおば
aoba
fresh leaves
紅葉こうよう
kouyou
leaves turning red (in autumn); red leaves; autumn colours
合言葉あいことば
aikotoba
password; watchword; motto
若葉わかば
wakaba
new leaves; young leaves; fresh verdure

Study notes

葉 is a JLPT N3 kanji written with 12 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 3), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #414 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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