字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

clean, purify, cleanse, exorcise, Manchu Dynasty

On’yomi ジョウ、セイ
Kun’yomi きよ.める、きよ.い

Origin

This character combines water on the left, shown by the three-stroke water radical, with the sound component 争 on the right. The water radical makes sense because purification and cleansing inherently involve water—washing away dirt or spiritual impurity. The 争 component doesn't contribute meaning; it's there mainly to hint at how the character should be pronounced. Together they form a character that visually suggests the idea of water doing the work of making something clean.

浄 9 strokes

Components

  • 氵 radical left
  • 争 sound hint right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 浄化 じょうか purification
  • 浄水 じょうすい clean water; purified water
  • 浄土 じょうど pure land (esp. the Western Pure Land paradise of Amitabha); (Buddhist) paradise
  • 清浄 せいじょう pure; clean
  • 洗浄 せんじょう washing; cleansing
  • 不浄 ふじょう unclean; dirty
  • 自浄 じじょう self-purification; self-cleansing
  • 浄化槽 じょうかそう water-purification tank

Related kanji

Same sound component 争
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
9
Kangxi radical
85
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1383 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+06D44