Meaning & readings

one, one radical (no.1)

On’yomi イチ、イツ
Kun’yomi ひと-、ひと.つ
Nanori かず、い、いっ、いる、かつ、かづ、てん、はじめ、ひ、ひとつ、まこと

Origin

This is the simplest kanji — just a single horizontal line. It's a pictographic character that represents the number one by showing one stroke, the most basic mark you can make. The single line is literally a picture of the concept "one" in its most reduced form. Because of its extreme simplicity and fundamental meaning, it became the first radical (a building block used to organize other kanji) in Japanese dictionaries.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.

1 strokes

Components

This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (一).

Common words

  • 一つ ひとつ one
  • 一位 いちい first place; first rank
  • 一員 いちいん one person; one member
  • 一因 いちいん one cause; one reason
  • 一円 いちえん one yen
  • 一応 いちおう more or less; though not quite satisfactorily
  • 一億 いちおく 100,000,000; one hundred million
  • 一過 いっか passing (e.g. of a typhoon); going past

Reference

Strokes
1
Kangxi radical
1
Grade
Grade 1 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#2 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 4
Unicode
U+04E00