染
染 — Dye
dye, color, paint, stain, print
On’yomiセン (sen)
Kun’yomiそめる (someru)
Kun’yomiそまる (somaru)
Kun’yomiしみる (shimiru)
Kun’yomiしみ (shimi)
Stroke order (9 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 染
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 汚染 | おせん osen | pollution; contamination |
| 感染 | かんせん kansen | infection; contagion; becoming infected |
| 感染症 | かんせんしょう kansenshou | infectious disease; infection |
| 伝染病 | でんせんびょう densenbyou | contagious disease; communicable disease; transmissible disease |
| 染色体 | せんしょくたい senshokutai | chromosome |
| 染まる | そまる somaru | to be dyed; to be tainted; to be infected |
Study notes
染 is a JLPT N1 kanji written with 9 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 6), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #837 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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