約 — promise, approximately, shrink

やく約 promise

Grade 4 Japanese school grade level in which this kanji is taught. Grade 1 is first year of elementary school. 9 strokes law

U+7D04 Unicode hex codepoint — a unique identifier for this character in the Unicode standard. Freq #94 Frequency rank among the ~2,500 most common kanji in Japanese newspapers. Lower number = more common. Heisig #1462 Index in James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" — a popular textbook that teaches kanji through mnemonics and stories.

Meanings

promise
approximately
shrink

word

やく yaku On'yomi On'yomi (音読み) — the Sino-Japanese reading, derived from Chinese pronunciation. Most commonly used in compound words (jukugo).

約(やく) yaku approximately 予(よ) 約(やく) yoyaku reservation 約(やく) 束(そく) yakusoku promise 節(せつ) 約(やく) setsuyaku economizing 要(よう) 約(やく) youyaku summary 集(しゅう) 約(やく) shuuyaku consolidation 公(こう) 約(やく) kouyaku public commitment 新(しん) 約(やく) shinyaku New Testament

やっ ya Kun'yomi Kun'yomi (訓読み) — the native Japanese reading of this kanji. Used when the kanji appears alone or with okurigana (trailing hiragana).

約(やっ) 款(かん) yakkan contract terms

Stroke order

Stroke data from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Components

Composed of

いと糸 thread #120

勺 ladle

Open in Atlas

Kangxi Radical The Kangxi radicals are a set of 214 character components standardized in the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary. Every kanji is classified under one radical, used for dictionary lookup and character organization.

#120 糸 thread