Meaning & readings
sword, saber, knife
On’yomi トウ
Kun’yomi かたな、そり
Nanori き、ち、と、わき
Origin
This character is a simple picture of a blade. The two strokes show a straight vertical line for the handle or spine of the sword, with a curved or angled line representing the sharp edge. Because knives and swords were essential tools and weapons in ancient times, the shape became the standard written form for the word "sword" or "blade," and it eventually developed into a kanji.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (刀).
Common words
- 小刀 こがたな (small) knife
- 太刀 たち long sword (as opposed to the shorter katana)
- 短刀 たんとう short sword; knife
- 竹刀 しない bamboo sword (for kendo); bamboo fencing stick
- 剃刀 かみそり razor
- 刀剣 とうけん sword; dagger
- 大刀 だいとう (Japanese) long sword; large sword
- 日本刀 にほんとう Japanese sword (usu. single-edged and curved); Japanese bladed weapon
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 2
- Kangxi radical
- 18
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #1794 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+05200