The kanji 笑: meaning, readings and stroke order

笑

Meaning: laugh, smile
On reading: ショウ shou
Kun reading: わら（う） warau、え（む） emu
Strokes: 10
Radical: 竹 bamboo
Level: Level 4 · grade 4

Stroke order

Meaning in other languages

Vietnamese: cười (tiếu)
Japanese: わらう。えむ。
Korean: 웃다 (소)
Chinese: 笑

Readings, words and example sentences

ショウ shou · on reading · less common

苦く笑しょう
a wry smile
思わず 苦く笑しょうしました。
I couldn't help giving a wry smile.

わら（う） warau · kun reading

笑わらう
to laugh
みんなで大きく 笑わらいました。
We all laughed out loud.

え（む） emu · kun reading · less common

笑えむ
to smile
母が静かに 笑えみました。
Mom smiled quietly.

Practise writing 笑 in the app

In Dino Kids your child writes 笑 with a finger and every stroke is checked, then takes the Level 4 practice test. Free, no ads, no in-app purchases.

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Readings, radicals: Kanjium, KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); strokes: KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); Korean, simplified forms: Unicode Unihan. Meanings, sentences: Dino Kids (CC0). See Licences.