English: country	On-Yomi: コク	Kun-Yomi: くに くな こ

Bushu (Radical) Info: 囗 (くにがまえ) – box

Henshall Mnemonic: one's country is an enclosed jewel

Levels: JLPT N5 | JLPT 4 (old) | Grade 2
Frequency: #3 of the 2500 most used kanji in newspapers

Common Words and/or Phrases Using this Kanji:

Click any individual kanji to view a similar information sheet for it.
Click [K] to look up the word's individual character(s) at WWWJDIC.
Click [D] to look up the word at WWWJDIC (definition is the same but other useful features exist).
Click [Jisho] to look up the word at Jisho.org.

JLPT N5 Words

• 外国   [がいこく]
  (n) foreign country   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 外国人   [がいこくじん]
  (n) foreigner   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国   [くに]
  (n) country   [K] [D] [Jisho]

JLPT N4 Words

• 国際   [こくさい]
  (n) international   [K] [D] [Jisho]

JLPT N3 Words

• 帰国   [きこく]
  (n,vs) return to country   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国民   [こくみん]
  (n) national; people; citizen   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国家   [こっか]
  (n) state; country; nation   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国会   [こっかい]
  (n) (abbr) National Diet; parliament; congress   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国境   [こっきょう]
  (n) national or state border   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国語   [こくご]
  (n) national language   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 全国   [ぜんこく]
  (n) country-wide; nation-wide; whole country; national   [K] [D] [Jisho]

JLPT N2 Words

• 国籍   [こくせき]
  (n) nationality   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国王   [こくおう]
  (n) king   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国立   [こくりつ]
  (n) national   [K] [D] [Jisho]

JLPT N1 Words

• 国産   [こくさん]
  (n) domestic products   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国土   [こくど]
  (n) realm   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 本国   [ほんごく]
  (n) one's own country   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 母国   [ぼこく]
  (n) one's homeland   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国防   [こくぼう]
  (n) national defence   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 天国   [てんごく]
  (n) paradise; heaven; Kingdom of Heaven   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国有   [こくゆう]
  (n) national ownership   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国連   [こくれん]
  (n) U.N.; United Nations   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国交   [こっこう]
  (n) diplomatic relations   [K] [D] [Jisho]

Other Popular Words Not Classified by JLPT

• 同国   [どうこく]
  (n) the same country; the same province; the said country   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国際法   [こくさいほう]
  (n) international laws   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 異国   [いこく]
  (n) foreign country   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 列国   [れっこく]
  (n) nations; states   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国際連合   [こくさいれんごう]
  United Nations   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国策   [こくさく]
  (n) national policy   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 米国   [べいこく]
  America; U.S.A.   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 雪国   [ゆきぐに]
  (n) snow country   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 韓国   [かんこく]
  (n) (South) Korea   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国士   [こくし]
  (n) distinguished citizen; patriot   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 軍国主義   [ぐんこくしゅぎ]
  militarism   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 先進国   [せんしんこく]
  (n) advanced (developed) country; advanced nations   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国情   [こくじょう]
  (n) conditions of a country   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 隣国   [りんごく]
  (n) neighbouring country; neighbouring state   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 売国奴   [ばいこくど]
  (n) traitor (to one's country)   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国人   [くにびと]
  (n) indigenous person; inhabitant of a country   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国是   [こくぜ]
  (n) national policy   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国勢   [こくせい]
  (n) state (condition, strength) of a country   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 憂国   [ゆうこく]
  (n) patriotism   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国勢調査   [こくせいちょうさ]
  (n) (national) census   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国政   [こくせい]
  (n) political situation; statecraft; body politic   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国税   [こくぜい]
  (n) national tax   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国税局   [こくぜいきょく]
  (n) revenue   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 国税庁   [こくぜいちょう]
  (Japanese) National Tax Administration Agency   [K] [D] [Jisho]
• 自国   [じこく]
  (n) one's own country   [K] [D] [Jisho]

Find more details for 国 at jisho.org, Yookoso! or WWWJDIC
or download a PDF version of this information sheet

Acknowledgments

The sofware used to generate this kanji information uses the EDICT and KANJIDIC files. These files are the property of the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group at Monash University and are used in conformance with the Group's license.

NOTE: I converted the sources just mentioned years ago and have never really updated so there may be some missing or incorrect information that has been addressed in the original sources but not here.

The first Stroke Order image used on this page is courtesy of Ulrich Apel's excellent open source KanjiVG project. The second image is from the folks at the excellent Jisho Japanese-English dictionary site and it too is based on KanjiVG.

Classifying the kanji and popular vocabulary by the new JLPT levels was done by consulting Jonathan Waller‘s JLPT Resources page, renshuu, Wictionary, and Nihongo Ichiban.

The Henshall Mnemonics are the copyright of Tuttle Publishing and are the result of the hard work by Professor Henshall. See the list I used here.

If you are curious about the lexicography shown in the word definitions, visit the WWWJDIC abbreviations and codes guide and the JMdict/Edict Lexicographical details page.