洋
洋 — Ocean
ocean, sea, foreign, Western style
On’yomiヨウ (you)
Kun’yomi—
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 洋
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 太平洋 | たいへいよう taiheiyou | Pacific Ocean |
| 東洋 | とうよう touyou | the East; the Orient; (East) Asia |
| 海洋 | かいよう kaiyou | ocean; sea |
| 大西洋 | たいせいよう taiseiyou | Atlantic Ocean |
| 西洋 | せいよう seiyou | the West; the Occident; Western countries |
| 太平洋戦争 | たいへいようせんそう taiheiyousensou | Pacific War (1941-1945) |
Study notes
洋 is a JLPT N4 kanji written with 9 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 3), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #763 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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