茶 · tea

JLPT N4 kanji. Readings, meaning, and how the character is built.

茶 means tea. It is a JLPT N4 kanji written in 9 strokes, read ちゃ or さ. It is built from 2 parts: 艹 (grass, plant), 余 (too much, myself). It appears in お茶 ((green) tea) and 紅茶 (black tea).

筆順 · Stroke order

茶 is written in 9 strokes, in the order numbered below. Order matters: it is what makes handwriting legible, and it is how the character is looked up in a paper dictionary.

解字 · What it is made of

茶 breaks into 2 parts.

• 艹 semantic grass, plant · top carries the meaning
• 余 other too much, myself · bottom component

Words that use 茶

Word	Reading	Meaning
お茶	おちゃ	(green) tea
紅茶	こうちゃ	black tea
茶色	ちゃいろ	brown

Built from the same parts

These use 艹 or 余 too. The part keeps its job from one character to the next, which is what makes it worth learning once.

• 花flower
• 茨briar

Practise 茶

Sumi teaches the character before it tests you: stroke order animated, the breakdown above shown as a pull-apart X-ray, then spaced review. Free, in your browser, no signup.

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