沢 means “mountain stream, marsh, luster”

さわ · sawa

Also: swamp, brilliance, grace

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

さわ, うるおい, うるおす, つや

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

タク

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 7 strokes

The story

Water (氵) beside 尺, the old unit of length: picture a stream shallow enough to measure by hand. 沢 is a mountain stream or marsh, as in place names like 金沢 and 軽井沢, and it also means sheen: 光沢 is luster, and 贅沢 is luxury.

Used in 贅沢 (zeitaku, luxury), 光沢 (koutaku, luster/gloss), and 沢 (sawa, mountain stream)

More from Streams & Springs

• 井 well
• 漏 leak
• 没 sink
• 浸 soak
• 滝 waterfall
• 潤 moisten
• 堤 embankment
• 澄 become clear
• 溝 ditch
• 渦 whirlpool
• 泡 bubble
• 濁 muddy

Learn 沢 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.