Kanji N1

矛: halberd, arms, festival float

矛 is a JLPT N1 kanji meaning halberd, arms, festival float, written with 5 strokes. It is read ム, ボウ (on) and ほこ (kun). It is one of the jōyō kanji taught in secondary school. You will see it in 矛盾 (むじゅん, contradiction) and 矛先 (ほこさき, point of a spear).

矛

Meanings

  • halberd
  • arms
  • festival float
Strokes5
JLPT levelN1
School gradeSecondary school
Frequency#1538 of 2,500

On reading · Kun reading

On reading
  • ム
  • ボウ

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

Kun reading
  • ほこ

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.

12345

Now draw it

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

123450 / 5

Your turn: draw stroke 1 of 5. Start at the dot.

Common words with 矛

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

  • 矛盾むじゅん

    contradiction; inconsistency

    JLPT N2
  • 矛先ほこさき

    point of a spear; spearhead

  • 矛ほこ

    long-handled Chinese spear; lance; pike

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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.