夜
夜 — Night
night, evening
On’yomiヤ (ya)
Kun’yomiよ (yo)
Kun’yomiよる (yoru)
Stroke order (8 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 夜
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 夜 | よる yoru | night; evening; dinner |
| 深夜 | しんや shinya | late at night |
| 日夜 | にちや nichiya | day and night; around the clock; always |
| 夜間 | やかん yakan | night; nighttime |
| 前夜 | ぜんや zenya | last night; the previous night; night before (Christmas, etc.) |
| 同夜 | どうや douya | the same night; that night |
Study notes
夜 is a JLPT N4 kanji written with 8 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 2), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #487 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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