純 (Genuine) — Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

genuine, purity, innocence, net (profit)

On’yomi ジュン

Nanori あつ、すみ、み、やすし、よし

Origin

The character 純 combines the radical for thread or fiber (糸 on the left) with a sound hint (屯 on the right) that suggests how to pronounce it. Thread naturally connects to the idea of purity because fine, unblended thread represents something genuine and unmixed. The meaning expanded from this concrete image of pure thread to the broader sense of genuineness, innocence, and even financial purity like net profit. The right component doesn't add meaning—it simply signals roughly how the character should be read.

純 10 strokes

Components

糸 radical left
屯 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

純益じゅんえき clear profit; net income
純金じゅんきん pure gold; solid gold
純情じゅんじょう pure heart; naivete
純粋じゅんすい pure; true
純度じゅんど purity (of a substance)
単純たんじゅん simple; plain
不純ふじゅん impure; adulterated
純文学じゅんぶんがく pure literature; belles-lettres

Easily confused with

These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.

Reference

Strokes: 10
Kangxi radical: 120
Formation type: Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade: Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank: #1044 (newspapers)
Former JLPT: level 2
Unicode: U+07D14