滅 – destroy, ruin, overthrow

13 strokesJōyō (secondary school)#1222 in newspaper frequencyN3 vocabulary

The kanji 滅 means destroy, ruin, overthrow, perish. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is メツ (metsu); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is ほろ.びる、ほろ.ぶ、ほろ.ぼす (horobiru, horobu, horobosu). It is written with 13 strokes, under radical 水 (no. 85).

Stroke order

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

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	メツ	metsu
Kun’yomi	ほろ.びる	horobiru
Kun’yomi	ほろ.ぶ	horobu
Kun’yomi	ほろ.ぼす	horobosu

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: 水 (Kangxi radical 85). Components: ノ・火・汁・戈.

Words using 滅

絶滅ぜつめつextinction滅多にめったにrarely全滅ぜんめつtotal destruction滅亡めつぼうdownfall滅びるほろびるto go to ruin滅ぼすほろぼすto destroy

Example sentences

絶滅は進化の一部である。

Extinction is part of evolution.

Tatoeba #141928

その町の住人は全滅した。

The population of the town was wiped out.

Tatoeba #207811

仮に核戦争が起こったとすれば、人類は滅亡するだろう。

If a nuclear war were to break out, mankind would perish.

Tatoeba #226176

Kanji with the same radical

決法治派済活海求水減演流沢消準渡

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