Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

州: state, province

JLPT N26 strokesGrade 3Your ink: 白 Not met

川 carries the meaning · 丶 is drawn in

6 strokes
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Two readings, and the words that use each

シュウshuu · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 州しゅうstate
  • 州立しゅうりつstate-run
  • 州都しゅうとstate capital
  • 九州きゅうしゅうKyushu
  • 本州ほんしゅうHonshu
  • イリノイ州イリノイしゅうstate of Illinois

スsu · on'yomi

  • 三角州さんかくすdelta

Also read す, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.

成り立ち

Where it comes from

Origin · sourced

Pictogram (象形)

Islet in a river.

Source: Wiktionary, 州 (rev. 92200382), CC BY-SA 4.0

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“River (川) + three dots (islands). Reprents "islands" of land settled within a great "river" system—the origin of the word for states and provinces.”
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered

州 gives its sound to

The family reading is シュウ (shuu). Sound parts: KanjiVG.

In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · zhōu

Same form: 州 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).

Simplified
州 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
州 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin zhōu most common reading

Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.

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