Kanji N2

乾: drought, dry, desiccate

乾 is a JLPT N2 kanji meaning drought, dry, desiccate, written with 11 strokes. It is read カン, ケン (on) and かわく, かわかす, ほす (kun). It is one of the jōyō kanji taught in secondary school. You will see it in 乾燥 (かんそう, dryness) and 乾電池 (かんでんち, dry cell battery).

乾

Meanings

  • drought
  • dry
  • desiccate
  • drink up
  • heaven
  • emperor
Strokes11
JLPT levelN2
School gradeSecondary school
Frequency#1453 of 2,500

On reading · Kun reading

On reading
  • カン
  • ケン

On'yomi: from Chinese, written in katakana. Used in compound words.

Kun reading
  • かわく
  • かわかす
  • ほす
  • ひる
  • いぬい

Kun'yomi: native Japanese, in hiragana. The faint part is the okurigana, written in kana after the kanji.

Watch the stroke order

Every stroke in order, the live one in vermilion. Replay as often as you like.

1234567891011

Now draw it

Trace each stroke in order. Wrong direction or wrong order gets flagged right away.

12345678910110 / 11

Your turn: draw stroke 1 of 11. Start at the dot.

Common words with 乾

The most useful words written with it, easiest first. Every other kanji in them opens its own page.

  • 乾燥かんそう

    dryness; aridity; drying (e.g. clothes)

    JLPT N2
  • 乾電池かんでんち

    dry cell battery

    JLPT N2
  • 乾杯かんぱい

    cheers; bottoms-up; prosit

    JLPT N2
  • 乾くかわく

    to get dry

    JLPT N4
  • 乾かすかわかす

    to dry (clothes, etc.); to desiccate

    JLPT N2
  • 乾ほし

    drying; dried

    JLPT N1
  • 乾季かんき

    dry season

  • 乾物かんぶつ

    dry provisions; dried food; dried goods

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Stroke order from KanjiVG © Ulrich Apel, CC BY-SA 3.0. Readings, meanings and words from KANJIDIC2 and JMdict, names from JMnedict, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata, CC0; the Spanish meanings they lack, translated by Naraio from their English, are shared under the same licence. Example sentences from Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR. JLPT lists after Jonathan Waller (tanos.co.uk), CC BY. Sentences split into words with IPADIC © NAIST and IPA, through Lindera.