刺 – thorn, pierce, stab

8 strokesJōyō (secondary school)#1031 in newspaper frequencyN3 vocabulary

The kanji 刺 means thorn, pierce, stab, prick, sting, calling card. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is シ (shi); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is さ.す、さ.さる、さ.し、さし、とげ (sasu, sasaru, sashi, sashi, toge). It is written with 8 strokes, under radical 刀 (no. 18).

Stroke order

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

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	シ	shi
Kun’yomi	さ.す	sasu
Kun’yomi	さ.さる	sasaru
Kun’yomi	さ.し	sashi
Kun’yomi	さし	sashi
Kun’yomi	とげ	toge

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: 刀 (Kangxi radical 18). Components: 刈・巾・ハ・木・亅・冂.

Words using 刺

刺激しげきstimulus刺すさすto pierce名刺めいしbusiness card刺さるささるto stick into (of something with a sharp point)刺身さしみsashimi (raw sliced fish, shellfish or crustaceans)刺繍ししゅうembroidery

Example sentences

光が刺激となって花が咲く。

Light is the stimulus that causes a flower to open.

Tatoeba #174090

昇進がより一層働く刺激となった。

Promotion was an incentive to harder work.

Tatoeba #146435

金利が低下したことが自動車の市場を刺激した。

Falling interest rates have stimulated the automobile market.

Tatoeba #179606

Kanji with the same radical

分前制初判利別割切副券劇創則削刊

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