優 – tenderness, excel, surpass

17 strokesTaught in grade 6#334 in newspaper frequencyN4 vocabulary

The kanji 優 means tenderness, excel, surpass, actor, superiority, gentleness. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is ユウ、ウ (yuu, u); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is やさ.しい、すぐ.れる、まさ.る (yasashii, sugureru, masaru). It is written with 17 strokes, under radical 人 (no. 9).

Stroke order

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

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	ユウ	yuu
On’yomi	ウ	u
Kun’yomi	やさ.しい	yasashii
Kun’yomi	すぐ.れる	sugureru
Kun’yomi	まさ.る	masaru

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: 人 (Kangxi radical 9). Components: 一・化・心・白・冖・夂・自.

Words using 優

優しいやさしいtender女優じょゆうactress優秀ゆうしゅうsuperior優勝ゆうしょうoverall victory俳優はいゆうactor優れるすぐれるto be better (than)優ゆうExcellent (grade)優位ゆういpredominance優勢ゆうせいsuperiority優先ゆうせんpreference優美ゆうびgrace優越ゆうえつsupremacy

Example sentences

彼の優しい言葉で彼女の気持ちが和らいだ。

She melted at his kind words.

Tatoeba #115967

その女優はせりふを台なしにした。

The actress murdered her lines.

Tatoeba #209324

彼女は作文が優秀だ。

She is excellent in composition.

Tatoeba #89912

Kanji with the same radical

会人今代体作以保信件側任使係価住

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