Kanji Study

Bushu (Radical) Info: 白 (しろ) – white

Henshall Mnemonic: sunstroke leaves one white?!

Levels: JLPT N5 | JLPT 4 (old) | Grade 1
Frequency: #483 of the 2500 most used kanji in newspapers

Common Words and/or Phrases Using this Kanji:

Click any individual kanji to view a similar information sheet for it.
Click [K] to look up the word's individual character(s) at WWWJDIC.
Click [D] to look up the word at WWWJDIC (definition is the same but other useful features exist).
Click [Jisho] to look up the word at Jisho.org.

JLPT N5 Words

• 面白い   [おもしろい]
  (adj) interesting; amusing   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白   [しろ]
  (n) white   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白い   [しろい]
  (adj) white   [K] [D] [Jisho]

JLPT N2 Words

• 白髪   [しらが]
  (n) white or grey hair; trendy hair bleaching   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 真っ白   [まっしろ]
  (adj-na,n) pure white   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 青白い   [あおじろい]
  (adj) pale; pallid   [K] [D] [Jisho]

JLPT N1 Words

• 白状   [はくじょう]
  (n,vs) confession   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 告白   [こくはく]
  (n,vs) confession; acknowledgement   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 明白   [めいはく]
  (adj-na,n) (uk) obvious; overt; plainly; frankly   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 蛋白質   [たんぱくしつ]
  (n) protein   [K] [D] [Jisho]

Other Popular Words Not Classified by JLPT

• 白菊   [しらぎく]
  (n) white chrysanthemum   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白血球   [はっけっきゅう]
  (n) leucocyte; white blood cell   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白血病   [はっけつびょう]
  (n) leukemia   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白黒   [しろくろ]
  (adj-no,n) black and white   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白骨   [はっこつ]
  (n) white (bleached) bone; skeleton   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白菜   [はくさい]
  (n) Chinese cabbage; white rape   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白山   [はくさん]
  mountain in Gifu Prefecture   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白紙   [はくし]
  (n) blank paper; white paper   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白書   [はくしょ]
  (n) white paper   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白色   [はくしょく]
  (n) white   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白人   [はくじん]
  (n) white person; Caucasian   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白星   [しろぼし]
  (n) white circle; white star; victory mark   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白線   [はくせん]
  (n) white line   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 潔白   [けっぱく]
  (adj-na,n) innocence (i.e. not guilty); purity; uprightness   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 黒白   [くろしろ]
  (n) black and white; right and wrong   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白地   [しろじ]
  (n) white background   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白痴   [はくち]
  (n) idiot; idiocy   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 腕白   [わんぱく]
  (adj-na,n) naughtiness   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白鳥   [はくちょう]
  (n) swan   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白内障   [はくないしょう]
  (n) cataract   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 漂白   [ひょうはく]
  (n,vs) blanching; bleaching   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 漂白剤   [ひょうはくざい]
  (n) bleaching agent; bleach   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白熱   [はくねつ]
  (n) white heat; incandescence; climax   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白馬   [はくば]
  (n) white horse   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 白髪   [はくはつ]
  (n) white or grey hair; trendy hair bleaching   [K] [D] [Jisho]

Find more details for 白 at jisho.org, Yookoso! or WWWJDIC

Acknowledgments

The sofware used to generate this kanji information uses the EDICT and KANJIDIC files. These files are the property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group at Monash University and are used in conformance with the Group's license.

NOTE: I converted the sources just mentioned years ago and have never really updated so there may be some missing or incorrect information that has been addressed in the original sources but not here.

The first Stroke Order image used on this page is courtesy of Ulrich Apel's excellent open source KanjiVG project. The second image is from the folks at the excellent Jisho Japanese-English dictionary site and it too is based on KanjiVG.

Classifying the kanji and popular vocabulary by the new JLPT levels was done by consulting Jonathan Waller‘s JLPT Resources page, renshuu, Wictionary, and Nihongo Ichiban.

The Henshall Mnemonics are the copyright of Tuttle Publishing and are the result of the hard work by Professor Henshall. See the list I used here.

If you are curious about the lexicography shown in the word definitions, visit the WWWJDIC abbreviations and codes guide and the JMdict/Edict Lexicographical details page.