極 – extreme, pole, extremely

12 strokesTaught in grade 4#460 in newspaper frequencyN3 vocabulary

The kanji 極 means extreme, pole, extremely, very, highly, most, end, settlement. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is キョク、ゴク (kyoku, goku); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is きわ.める、きわ.まる、きわ.まり、きわ.み、き.める、-ぎ.め、き.まる (kiwameru, kiwamaru, kiwamari, kiwami, kimeru, gime, kimaru). It is written with 12 strokes, under radical 木 (no. 75).

Stroke order

Stroke order from KanjiVG. Practise others with the stroke order lookup.

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	キョク	kyoku
On’yomi	ゴク	goku
Kun’yomi	きわ.める	kiwameru
Kun’yomi	きわ.まる	kiwamaru
Kun’yomi	きわ.まり	kiwamari
Kun’yomi	きわ.み	kiwami
Kun’yomi	き.める	kimeru
Kun’yomi	-ぎ.め	gime
Kun’yomi	き.まる	kimaru

A dot separates the kanji’s part from the okurigana (kana written after it), e.g. まな.ぶ → 学ぶ.

Radical and components

Radical: 木 (Kangxi radical 75). Components: 口・又・木・一.

Words using 極

極ごくquite積極的せっきょくてきpositive南極なんきょくSouth Pole北極ほっきょくNorth Pole消極的しょうきょくてきnegative極楽ごくらくSukhavati (Amitabha's Pure Land)究極きゅうきょくultimate極端きょくたんextreme極めてきわめてexceedingly両極りょうきょくboth extremities

Example sentences

彼女は婦人解放運動で積極的に活躍した。

She took an active part in the women's lib movement.

Tatoeba #86924

たとえ私たちが即座に使用をやめても、南極のオゾンホールが元に戻るのにはさらに後６０年かかります。

Even if we do this, it will be another sixty years before the Antarctic ozone hole is repaired.

Tatoeba #203490

北極圏とは北極周辺の地域の事である。

The Arctic is the area round the North Pole.

Tatoeba #82423

Kanji with the same radical

本東業来機権査案村果格検校構木条

Sources: KANJIDIC2 (EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0), KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0), Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). About the data.