要 — need, main point, essence

かなめ要 need

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

U+8981 Unicode hex codepoint — a unique identifier for this character in the Unicode standard. Freq #106 Frequency rank among the ~2,500 most common kanji in Japanese newspapers. Lower number = more common. Heisig #1730 Index in James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" — a popular textbook that teaches kanji through mnemonics and stories.

Meanings

need
main point
essence
pivot
key to

word

かなめ kaname 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).

要(かなめ) kaname key point

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

必(ひつ) 要(よう) hitsuyou necessary 重(じゅう) 要(よう) juuyou important 要(よう) 求(きゅう) youkyuu demand 主(しゅ) 要(よう) shuyou main 要(よう) 望(ぼう) youbou demand 要(よう) するに yousuruni in short 不(ふ) 要(よう) fuyou unnecessary 要(よう) する yousuru to require

い i 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).

要(い) る iru to need

Stroke order

Stroke data from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Components

Composed of

覀 west (top component)

おんな女 woman #38

Used as component in (1)

こし腰 loins

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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.

#146 襾 cover