The kanji 食: meaning, readings and stroke order

食

Meaning: eat, food
On reading: ショク shoku、ジキ* jiki
Kun reading: く（う） kuu、く（らう） kurau、た（べる） taberu
Strokes: 9
Radical: 食 eat, food
Level: Level 2 · grade 2

Stroke order

Meaning in other languages

Vietnamese: ăn, đồ ăn (thực)
Japanese: たべる。たべもの。
Korean: 먹다, 음식 (식)
Chinese: 吃、食物

Readings, words and example sentences

ショク shoku · on reading

朝ちょう食しょく
breakfast
朝ちょう食しょくは米と魚です。
Breakfast is rice and fish.

く（う） kuu · kun reading · less common

食くう
to eat (rough word)
虫が草を 食くう。
Bugs eat the grass.

く（らう） kurau · kun reading · less common

食くらう
to get hit by, to suffer
山で大雨を 食くらいました。
I got caught in heavy rain in the mountains.

た（べる） taberu · kun reading

食たべる
to eat
みんなでごはんを 食たべます。
We all eat together.

* marks a less common reading, usually learnt from junior high on.

Practise writing 食 in the app

In Dino Kids your child writes 食 with a finger and every stroke is checked, then takes the Level 2 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.