Kanji Library
KanjiJLPT N1 › 酸

酸 — Acid

JLPT N114 strokesGrade 5#1218 most used
acid, bitterness, sour, tart
On’yomiサン (san)
Kun’yomi (sui)

Stroke order (14 strokes)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Watch the strokes draw themselves in the correct order — numbers mark where each stroke starts. Diagram from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA).

Common words using 酸

WordReadingMeaning
酸化さんか
sanka
oxidation; oxidization
酸性さんせい
sansei
acidity; acidic
酸素さんそ
sanso
oxygen (O)
さん
san
acid; sourness; sour taste
アミノ酸アミノさん
aminosan
amino acid
一酸化炭素いっさんかたんそ
issankatanso
carbon monoxide

Study notes

酸 is a JLPT N1 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 #1218 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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