総
総 — General
general, whole, all, full, total
On’yomiソウ (sou)
Kun’yomiすべて (subete)
Kun’yomiすべて (subete)
Kun’yomiふさ (fusa)
Stroke order (14 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 総
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 総会 | そうかい soukai | general meeting |
| 総裁 | そうさい sousai | president (of an organization); director general; governor (of a central bank) |
| 総選挙 | そうせんきょ sousenkyo | general election (of the lower house) |
| 総合 | そうごう sougou | synthesis; combination; integration |
| 総額 | そうがく sougaku | total amount (of money); total sum; sum total |
| 総長 | そうちょう souchou | president (of a university); vice-chancellor; chancellor |
Study notes
総 is a JLPT N2 kanji written with 14 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 5), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #129 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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