字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

rot, decay, sour

On’yomi フ
Kun’yomi くさ.る、-くさ.る、くさ.れる、くさ.れ、くさ.らす、くさ.す

Origin

This character combines the flesh radical 肉 with the sound hint component 府. The 肉 part makes sense because decay and rot most visibly happen to meat and other organic matter—when flesh spoils, it becomes sour and breaks down. The 府 component gives you a rough pronunciation guide rather than adding to the meaning. Together, the character's picture of corrupted flesh captures what happens when something decays: the decay process that makes food turn sour and unusable.

腐 14 strokes

Components

  • 府 sound hint top-left wrap
  • 肉 radical position.tarec

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

Common words

  • 陳腐 ちんぷ stale; hackneyed
  • 豆腐 とうふ tofu; bean curd
  • 腐る くさる to rot; to go bad
  • 腐食 ふしょく rot; decay
  • 腐心 ふしん taking great pains (to do); making every effort
  • 腐敗 ふはい decomposition; putrefaction

Related kanji

Same radical

Reference

Strokes
14
Kangxi radical
130
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1225 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+08150