Meanings
- dreadful
- be frightened
- fearful
Strokes8
JLPT levelN3
School gradeSecondary school
Frequency#1325 of 2,500
Kanji N3
怖: dreadful, be frightened, fearful
怖 is a JLPT N3 kanji meaning dreadful, be frightened, fearful, written with 8 strokes. It is read フ, ホ (on) and こわい, こわがる, おじる (kun). It is one of the jōyō kanji taught in secondary school. You will see it in 恐怖 (きょうふ, fear) and 怖い (こわい, scary).
怖
On reading · Kun reading
On reading
- フ
- ホ
On'yomi: from Chinese, written in katakana. Used in compound words.
Kun reading
- こわい
- こわがる
- おじる
- おそれる
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.
Now draw it
Trace each stroke in order. Wrong direction or wrong order gets flagged right away.
0 / 8
Your turn: draw stroke 1 of 8. Start at the dot.
Common words with 怖
The most useful words written with it, easiest first. Every other kanji in them opens its own page.
- JLPT N3
- 怖いこわいJLPT N4
scary; frightening; eerie; dreadful
- 怖がるこわがる
to be afraid (of); to fear
Ready to start?
It's free to start, from hiragana to your first kanji. Get in early and your account keeps every step.
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. JLPT lists after Jonathan Waller (tanos.co.uk), CC BY.