美
美 — Beauty
beauty, beautiful
On’yomiビ (bi)
On’yomiミ (mi)
Kun’yomiうつくしい (utsukushii)
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 美
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 美術 | びじゅつ bijutsu | art; fine arts |
| 美術館 | びじゅつかん bijutsukan | art museum; art gallery |
| 美しい | うつくしい utsukushii | beautiful; pretty; lovely |
| 美 | び bi | beauty |
| 美人 | びじん bijin | beautiful woman; (a) beauty; belle |
| 美容 | びよう biyou | beauty; good figure; (beautiful) appearance |
Study notes
美 is a JLPT N3 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 #462 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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