壊
壊 — Demolition
demolition, break, destroy
On’yomiカイ (kai)
On’yomiエ (e)
Kun’yomiこわす (kowasu)
Kun’yomiこわれる (kowareru)
Kun’yomiやぶる (yaburu)
Stroke order (16 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 壊
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 崩壊 | ほうかい houkai | collapse; crumbling; breaking down |
| 破壊 | はかい hakai | destruction; disruption; (application) crash |
| 壊滅 | かいめつ kaimetsu | (complete) destruction; annihilation; devastation |
| 壊す | こわす kowasu | to break; to destroy; to demolish |
| 壊れる | こわれる kowareru | to be broken; to break; to fall apart |
| 取り壊し | とりこわし torikowashi | demolition; pulling down; destruction |
Study notes
壊 is a JLPT N1 kanji written with 16 strokes. It is taught at secondary-school level in Japan. Ranked #727 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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