都
都 — Metropolis
metropolis, capital, all, everything
On’yomiト (to)
On’yomiツ (tsu)
Kun’yomiみやこ (miyako)
Stroke order (11 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 都
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 都市 | とし toshi | town; city; municipal |
| 都内 | とない tonai | within the (Tokyo) metropolitan area |
| 京都 | きょうと kyouto | Kyoto (city, prefecture) |
| 首都 | しゅと shuto | (national) capital (city); metropolis |
| 首都圏 | しゅとけん shutoken | Greater Tokyo Metropolitan area; metropolitan area (of a capital) |
| 都 | みやこ miyako | capital (esp. Kyoto, Japan's former capital); seat of government; capital (of music, fashion, etc.) |
Study notes
都 is a JLPT N3 kanji written with 11 strokes. It is taught in Japanese elementary school (grade 3), so native children learn it early — a good sign it appears everywhere. Ranked #123 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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