元

元 — beginning, former time, origin

JLPT: JLPT N4
Strokes: 4
Taught in: School year 2
Frequency: #192 most common

Readings

On'yomi came with the character from Chinese; kun'yomi is the native Japanese word it was borrowed for. A dot marks where okurigana takes over, a hyphen marks a prefix or suffix position.

On'yomi: げん gen

がん gan
Kun'yomi: もと moto

Example words for this kanji are being written.

Words that use 元

A kanji is worth learning for the words it unlocks. These are from the JLPT vocabulary lists.