荒

JŌYŌ KANJI · Secondary school

laid waste

laid waste · rough · rude · wild

9 strokesRadical 140U+8352
01

Readings

Official Jōyō readings in table order

On’yomi 音読み

コウ

Kun’yomi 訓読み

あらいあれるあらす

Additional readings in the learning dataset

On’yomi

None listed in this source.

Kun’yomi

あらあ.らしすさ.む

These are outside the official Jōyō list above. A listed reading is not necessarily common in modern use.

02

Origin and meaning

The abandoned field sense directly broadened to land or conditions becoming rough, wild, ruined, or disorderly.

Earlier sense recorded in the sourceuncultivated wasteland with no one to till it
Meanings in the learning dataset todaylaid waste · rough · rude · wild

Read the source entry ↗

03

Written form

No parenthesized form is given in the official Jōyō index for this character.

Dictionary radical艸くさ · grass / plant
Stroke count9May vary for alternate forms.
UnicodeU+8352Modern character encoding, not an origin date.

Compare manuscript and printed examples in the HNG historical glyph archive ↗. Where available, its dated samples document written forms; they do not establish the first use of this character in Japan.

04

Examples in the official table

  • 荒天,荒廃,荒涼
  • 荒い,荒波,荒々しい
  • 荒れる,荒れ地,大荒れ
  • 荒らす,倉庫荒らし

Official notes

  • ⇔粗い
  •  
05

When did it enter Japanese?

Chinese characters reached Japan through a long process of contact. Early inscribed objects and sixth-century Japanese names are documented; this is context for the writing system, not a first date for 荒.

荒 appears in the current Jōyō kanji table published on 30 November 2010. This records modern standard status, not the date the character was first used in Japan.

A dated first Japanese use for 荒 has not been verified in the sources attached to this entry.

Agency for Cultural Affairs: writing history ↗ · 2010 Jōyō notice ↗

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