通: traffic, pass through

JLPT level N4
10 strokes
Radical 辵

Also avenue, commute, counter for letters, notes, documents, etc.

Readings

On’yomi

ツウ
ツ

Kun’yomi

とおる
とおり
-とおり
-どおり
とおす
とおし
-どおし
かよう

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.

What do the dots mean?

The kana after the dot, shown lighter, is okurigana: it is written in kana after the kanji. For example, the reading い·きる of 生 is written 生きる.

A hyphen means the reading is used as a prefix or suffix, attached to another word.

Stroke order

0.5×1×2×

Strokes from KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Example words

通(つう)authority; expert; connoisseur
一通(いっつう)one copy (of a document); one letter
開通(かいつう)opening (of a new road, railway, etc.); going into operation (e.g. telephone communication); beginning services
通(かよ)うto go to and from (a place); to go back and forth between; to run between (e.g. bus, train, etc.)
通(とお)すto let pass; to allow through; to let through
通(とお)りstreet; road; avenue

Where do these words come from?

They are common words containing 通, 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 辵 (no. 162), like 通 (the 8 most common of 51 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 2 (primary school)
Newspaper frequency: 80 of 2,500
Classical radical: 辵 no. 162
Unicode: U+901A

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