薬
薬 — Medicine
medicine, chemical, enamel, gunpowder, benefit
On’yomiヤク (yaku)
Kun’yomiくすり (kusuri)
Stroke order (16 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 薬
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 農薬 | のうやく nouyaku | agricultural chemical; agrochemical; agrichemical |
| 麻薬 | まやく mayaku | narcotic; drug; dope |
| 薬 | くすり kusuri | medicine; pharmaceuticals; (legal) drugs |
| 医薬品 | いやくひん iyakuhin | medical and pharmaceutical products; medicinal supplies; drugs |
| 薬物 | やくぶつ yakubutsu | drug; medicine |
| 製薬 | せいやく seiyaku | medicine manufacture; drug manufacture |
Study notes
薬 is a JLPT N3 kanji written with 16 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 3), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #702 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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