上

Meaning in English

on / above

Stroke order

Animated kanji stroke order

上

Sentence

Related sentences

N5 机の上に本が二本あります。 Tsukue no ue ni hon ga nihon arimasu. There are two books on the desk. N5 本は机の上にあります。 Hon wa tsukue no ue ni arimasu. The book is on the desk. N5 かばんは椅子の上にあります。 Kaban wa isu no ue ni arimasu. The bag is on the chair. N5 日本語が上手になりました。 Nihongo ga jouzu ni narimashita. I became good at Japanese.

Dictionary

Word context

What it means

上 means 'above' or 'up'. It denotes a higher position or the top side of something and is used to indicate vertical location, higher status, or priority relative to another item; in everyday English terms think 'on top of', 'higher than', or 'the top/upper part'.

Main meanings

1. On or onto — indicates placement or contact onto a surface rather than merely position above.
2. The upper part or topmost portion of an object or area, used when distinguishing sections.
3. Higher rank, status, or superiority in social or hierarchical contexts.
4. Earlier/first portion of a time period (e.g., the beginning segment of a month).
5. Directional/motion sense in compounds meaning to go up or ascend.

How to use it

Used widely in spoken and written Japanese as a standalone noun/adverb and inside compounds; the reading ue (ue) appears in everyday, casual and polite contexts for spatial relations, while Sino-Japanese readings like jō (jō) appear in formal compounds and technical terms; appears as a prefix/suffix to form words about position, rank, time segments and direction, and is found in honorific expressions and place names with context-dependent nuance.

Variants and close terms

下 (shita) — below, under (antonym)
上位 (jōi) — upper rank, higher position
上部 (jōbu) — upper part, top section
上流 (jōryū) — upstream, higher social/technical position

Composition

上 (ue) is a pictographic character showing a short horizontal stroke positioned above a baseline or mark, visually representing something placed above; the strokes emphasize 'higher' versus 'lower', and the simple composition directly encodes the spatial sense 'up' or 'top'.

Origin

The character was adopted from Chinese characters brought to Japan with the writing system around the 5th–8th centuries; it originally conveyed the simple spatial idea of one thing being higher than another and entered Japanese writing and vocabulary through classical texts and official records, becoming a core character for spatial and abstract relations.

Word class

noun, adverb, prefix (名詞、副詞、接頭辞、漢字)

Word

Related words by kanji and components

N4 差し上げる sashiageru give humbly, offer respectfully N4 以上 ijou more than, above, that is all N4 召し上がる meshiagaru eat or drink, honorific form N4 屋上 okujou rooftop, roof terrace N4 申し上げる moushiageru say humbly, tell respectfully N5 机の上 tsukue no ue on the desk N5 上手 jouzu skillful / good at N5 上手になりました jouzu ni narimashita became good at N5 上がります agarimasu go up, rise

Kanji