祖: ancestor, pioneer

JLPT level N3
9 strokes
Radical 示

Also founder

Readings

On’yomi

Kun’yomi

No kun’yomi listed in KANJIDIC2.

On’yomi and kun’yomi?

On’yomi are readings that came from Chinese, written here in katakana. Kun’yomi are native Japanese readings, written in hiragana. Which one is used depends on the word: kanji in compounds often take an on’yomi, and a kanji standing alone often takes a kun’yomi.

Stroke order

0.5×1×2×

Strokes from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Example words

祖(そ)ancestor; forefather; progenitor
教祖(きょうそ)founder of a religious sect
元祖(がんそ)originator; pioneer; inventor
先祖(せんぞ)ancestor; forefather; foremother
祖国(そこく)homeland; motherland; fatherland
祖先(そせん)ancestor

Where do these words come from?

They are common words containing 祖, from JMdict, picked automatically with words made of easier kanji first. They are not graded by JLPT level.

Keep exploring

Same radical. KANJIDIC2 files these kanji under radical 示 (no. 113), like 祖 (the 8 most common of 17 in the collection).

What is a radical?

Dictionaries file every kanji under one of 214 radicals, a component used for looking it up. A shared radical often hints at a shared theme, but not always, and it says nothing certain about a character’s history. A radical can change shape inside a kanji, as 水 becomes 氵.

Additional detailsSchool grade, frequency, Unicode and sources

School grade: Grade 5 (primary school)
Newspaper frequency: 1,226 of 2,500
Classical radical: 示 no. 113
Unicode: U+7956

School grade comes from the Japanese school curriculum. Frequency is the rank among the 2,500 most common kanji in newspapers. Neither is a JLPT level.

Sources for this entry

KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0): meanings, on’yomi, kun’yomi, stroke count, school grade, newspaper frequency, radical
Jonathan Waller's JLPT kanji lists (CC BY): JLPT level
JMdict (CC BY-SA 4.0): example words
KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0): stroke order