Kanji

Jōyō kanji, Taught in junior high

JLPT level: N1

1579 of 2500 most used kanji in newspapers

Stroke count: 9

Meaning: smash, break, crush, familiar, popular

Kunyomi: くだ.く くだ.ける

Onyomi: サイ

Composition:

Radical

Radical:

Meaning: stone

Examples

Onyomi Examples

サイセキ crushed stone, macadam, crushing (rock)

岩機 サイガンキ rock crusher

ハサイ crushing (into pieces), smashing, cracking, breaking up

ギョクサイ honourable defeat, honorable defeat, honourable death, honorable death, death without surrender, trying but being utterly beaten, being completely rejected when professing one's love

Kunyomi Examples

くだく to break, to smash

ける くだける to break (into pieces), to be broken, to be smashed, to collapse, to crumble, to decline, to cool (e.g. enthusiasm), to dampen (e.g. one's will to fight), to become less formal, to throw off reserve, to become affable, to become easy to understand (e.g. a story), to be worried