Kanji N1

励: encourage, be diligent, inspire

励 is a JLPT N1 kanji meaning encourage, be diligent, inspire, written with 7 strokes. It is read レイ (on) and はげむ, はげます (kun). It is one of the jōyō kanji taught in secondary school. You will see it in 奨励 (しょうれい, encouragement) and 激励 (げきれい, encouragement).

励

Meanings

  • encourage
  • be diligent
  • inspire
Strokes7
JLPT levelN1
School gradeSecondary school
Frequency#1254 of 2,500

On reading · Kun reading

On reading
  • レイ

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

Kun reading
  • はげむ
  • はげます

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.

1234567

Now draw it

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

12345670 / 7

Your turn: draw stroke 1 of 7. Start at the dot.

Common words with 励

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

  • 奨励しょうれい

    encouragement; promotion; inducement; incitement

    JLPT N1
  • 激励げきれい

    encouragement; spurring (on); cheering (on)

    JLPT N1
  • 励ますはげます

    to encourage; to cheer on; to cheer (someone) up

    JLPT N1
  • 励むはげむ

    to work hard; to try hard; to strive

    JLPT N1
  • 励みはげみ

    encouragement; incentive; stimulus

  • 励ましはげまし

    encouragement; cheering on

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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.