要 – need, main point, essence

9 strokesTaught in grade 4#106 in newspaper frequencyN5 vocabulary

The kanji 要 means need, main point, essence, pivot, key to. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is ヨウ (you); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is い.る、かなめ (iru, kaname). It is written with 9 strokes, under radical 襾 (no. 146).

Stroke order

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

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	ヨウ	you
Kun’yomi	い.る	iru
Kun’yomi	かなめ	kaname

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: 襾 (Kangxi radical 146). Components: 女・西.

Words using 要

要るいるto be needed必要ひつようnecessary重要じゅうようimportant主要しゅようchief需要じゅようdemand要求ようきゅうdemand要素ようそelement要点ようてんgist要するにようするにin short要旨ようし(main) point要領ようりょうpoint要因よういんmain cause要請ようせいappeal要望ようぼうdemand for要ようmain point

Example sentences

私達が生きていくためには衣食住が必要です。

We need food, clothes and a home in order to live.

Tatoeba #165556

歯医者に行く必要はないですよ。

You don't need to go to the dentist's.

Tatoeba #150948

その結び目を守るのは重要なことだ。

Maintaining that tie is important.

Tatoeba #211137

Kanji with the same radical

西覆

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