青 — blue, green, youth

あお青 blue

U+9752 Unicode hex codepoint — a unique identifier for this character in the Unicode standard. JLPT 4 Japanese-Language Proficiency Test level. N5 is beginner, N1 is the most advanced. This kanji appears at the 4 level. Grade 1 Japanese school grade level in which this kanji is taught. Grade 1 is first year of elementary school. 8 strokes Freq #589 Frequency rank among the ~2,500 most common kanji in Japanese newspapers. Lower number = more common. Heisig #1534 Index in James Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" — a popular textbook that teaches kanji through mnemonics and stories. Radical #174

Meanings

blue
green
youth

word

あお ao 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).

青(あお) い aoi blue 青(あお) ao blue 青(あお) 木(き) aoki evergreen tree 青(あお) 山(やま) aoyama Aoyama (place name) 青(あお) 森(もり) aomori Aomori 青(あお) 空(ぞら) aozora blue sky

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

青(せい) 年(ねん) seinen youth 青(せい) 少(しょう) 年(ねん) seishounen youth 青(せい) 春(しゅん) seishun youth

Stroke order

Stroke data from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Components

Kangxi Radical

This kanji is itself Radical #174

Building Blocks

つき月 month #74

龶 stand with line

Compound ideograph (会意). 龶 (sprouting plant, related to 生 life) above 月 (moon, here possibly a vat of dye). The color of fresh plant growth — blue-green. Also connotes youth. A prolific phonetic element in compounds like 清, 晴, 静, 情, 請.

Used as component in (5)

は晴 clear up きよ清 pure しず静 quiet なさ情 feeling こ請 request