首 – neck, counter for songs and poems

9 strokesTaught in grade 2#98 in newspaper frequencyN4 vocabulary

The kanji 首 means neck, counter for songs and poems. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is シュ (shu); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is くび (kubi). It is written with 9 strokes, under radical 首 (no. 185).

Stroke order

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

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	シュ	shu
Kun’yomi	くび	kubi

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: 首 (Kangxi radical 185). Components: 自・并・目.

Words using 首

首くびneck首相しゅしょうprime minister首都しゅと(national) capital (city)手首てくびwrist部首ぶしゅradical (of a kanji character)元首げんしゅsovereign自首じしゅsurrender (to the authorities)首脳しゅのうhead首飾りくびかざりnecklace首輪くびわ(animal) collar

Example sentences

その首と頭部はとてもやわらかかった。

Its neck and head were very soft.

Tatoeba #209467

鳥は首をひょいと水に浸した。

The bird dipped its head into the water.

Tatoeba #125790

あなたの首は風前のともし火だ。

Your job hangs by a thread.

Tatoeba #233205

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