毒
毒 — Poison
poison, virus, venom, germ, harm, injury
On’yomiドク (doku)
Kun’yomi—
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 毒
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 毒 | どく doku | poison; toxicant; venom |
| 中毒 | ちゅうどく chuudoku | poisoning; addiction |
| 毒性 | どくせい dokusei | toxicity; virulence; toxic |
| 消毒 | しょうどく shoudoku | disinfection; sterilization; sterilisation |
| 毒ガス | どくガス dokugasu | poison gas |
| 気の毒 | きのどく kinodoku | pitiful; unfortunate; poor |
Study notes
毒 is a JLPT N2 kanji written with 8 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 5), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #1419 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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