難 – difficult, impossible, trouble

18 strokesTaught in grade 6#330 in newspaper frequencyN5 vocabulary

The kanji 難 means difficult, impossible, trouble, accident, defect. Its on’yomi (Chinese-derived reading) is ナン (nan); its kun’yomi (native Japanese reading) is かた.い、-がた.い、むずか.しい、むづか.しい、むつか.しい、-にく.い (katai, gatai, muzukashii, muzukashii, mutsukashii, nikui). It is written with 18 strokes, under radical 隹 (no. 172).

Stroke order

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

Readings

Type	Reading	Romaji
On’yomi	ナン	nan
Kun’yomi	かた.い	katai
Kun’yomi	-がた.い	gatai
Kun’yomi	むずか.しい	muzukashii
Kun’yomi	むづか.しい	muzukashii
Kun’yomi	むつか.しい	mutsukashii
Kun’yomi	-にく.い	nikui

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: 隹 (Kangxi radical 172). Components: 艾・隹・大・口・亠・二.

Words using 難

難しいむずかしいdifficult難なんdifficulty困難こんなんdifficulty災難さいなんcalamity盗難とうなんtheft有難いありがたいgrateful難いがたいvery difficult to ...遭難そうなん(meeting with) disaster無難ぶなんsafe (e.g. choice)非難ひなんcriticism避難ひなんtaking refuge

Example sentences

私は彼女に難しい質問をした。

I asked her a difficult question.

Tatoeba #153328

あの老人は食べ物に難しい。

That old man is a fussy eater.

Tatoeba #230415

彼の言ってる事を理解するのは困難だ。

I found it difficult to understand what he was saying.

Tatoeba #117542

Kanji with the same radical

集離雄雑雇雌雛

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