川

Meaning in English

river

Stroke order

Animated kanji stroke order

川

Sentence

Related sentences

N3 子供のころは夏になるとよく川で遊んだものだ Kodomo no koro wa natsu ni naru to yoku kawa de asonda mono da When I was a child I used to play in the river in summer N3 子供のころはよく川で遊んだものだ Kodomo no koro wa yoku kawa de asonda mono da When I was a child I used to play in the river often

Dictionary

Word context

What it means

川 (kawa) means "river." It refers to a flowing body of freshwater—ranging from small streams to larger rivers—and is the standard, everyday Japanese term used to identify and discuss natural watercourses in speech, signage and writing.

Main meanings

1. small stream or brook: refers to smaller, narrow watercourses distinct from larger rivers.
2. figurative flow or current: used metaphorically for movement or flow (e.g., of people, time, information).
3. component in compound nouns: used inside compound words to denote river-related features or infrastructure.

How to use it

Used broadly in conversation, maps, signage and writing to identify rivers and streams; appears in addresses and place names as well as in surnames; commonly used in literature and poetry to describe natural landscapes; in formal/administrative language it occurs in compound terms for river systems and water management, and in compounds the reading often changes to (gawa) due to rendaku.

Variants and close terms

河 (kawa), river — alternative kanji often used for larger rivers or in historical/Chinese contexts.
がわ (gawa), river — the rendaku (voicing) reading used in many place-name compounds.
海 (umi), sea — common antonym when contrasting bodies of water.

Composition

川 (kawa) is a single-character pictograph: the three vertical strokes symbolize streams or channels of flowing water, visually representing a river or successive watercourses; as a standalone character it directly denotes a watercourse without combining multiple kanji.

Etymology

川 (kawa) is a native Japanese (wago) word traceable to Old Japanese *kawa and likely to a Proto-Japonic root; the basic pronunciation kawa has remained remarkably stable from Old Japanese into the modern language.

Origin

The physical concept of rivers predates recorded Japanese history; the Chinese character 川 was adopted to write the native word after contact with Chinese writing and appears in early Japanese texts and place names by the classical period, becoming the written form most commonly paired with the native pronunciation.

Word class

noun (名詞)

Kanji