Kanji Library
KanjiJLPT N1 › 沖

沖 — Open sea

JLPT N17 strokesGrade 4#929 most used
open sea, offing, rise high into sky
On’yomiチュウ (chuu)
Kun’yomiおき (oki)
Kun’yomiおきつ (okitsu)
Kun’yomiちゅうする (chuusuru)
Kun’yomiわく (waku)

Stroke order (7 strokes)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Watch the strokes draw themselves in the correct order — numbers mark where each stroke starts. Diagram from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA).

Common words using 沖

WordReadingMeaning
沖縄おきなわ
okinawa
Okinawa (city, prefecture)
沖合おきあい
okiai
off the coast; offshore; out at sea
おき
oki
open sea; Okinawa

Study notes

沖 is a JLPT N1 kanji written with 7 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 4), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #929 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).

← 露 dew緩 slacken →

🔊 Tap the big kanji, any reading or any example word to hear it.