先 – before, ahead, previous

6 strokesTaught in grade 1#173 in newspaper frequencyN5 vocabulary

The kanji 先 means before, ahead, previous, future, precedence. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is セン (sen); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is さき、ま.ず (saki, mazu). It is written with 6 strokes, under radical 儿 (no. 10).

Stroke order

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

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	セン	sen
Kun’yomi	さき	saki
Kun’yomi	ま.ず	mazu

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: 儿 (Kangxi radical 10). Components: ノ・土・儿.

Words using 先

先さきpoint先月せんげつlast month先週せんしゅうlast week先生せんせいteacher先輩せんぱいsenior (at school, work, etc.)先日せんじつthe other day先行せんこうgoing ahead先程さきほどa short while ago先祖せんぞancestor先端せんたんpointed end先頭せんとうhead (of a line, group, etc.)祖先そせんancestorお先におさきにbefore真っ先まっさきthe head先々月せんせんげつmonth before last先々週せんせんしゅうweek before last先代せんだいprevious generation (of a family)先着せんちゃくarriving first優先ゆうせんpreference先天的せんてんてきinborn勤め先つとめさきplace of work先だってせんだってthe other day先せんformer

Example sentences

鉛筆の先が丸くなった。

The point of the pencil has become dull.

Tatoeba #188626

二人の男のうち、背の高い方が先に出ていった。

The taller of the two men went out first.

Tatoeba #123090

この電車は中野より先は各駅に停車する。

This train stops at every station from Nakano on.

Tatoeba #220384

Kanji with the same radical

党元光児充免兆兄克兎

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