了 means “finish, complete”

りょう · ryou

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

リョウ

JLPT N2 · Taught in secondary school · 2 strokes

The story

Picture 子, a child, with its arms tucked in: everything wrapped up. 了 means done: 終了 is the end, 完了 is complete, and 了解 is the crisp "understood" of radio calls, text messages and offices.

Used in 終了 (shuuryou, end/close), 完了 (kanryou, completion), and 了解 (ryoukai, understood/roger)

More from The Order of Things

• 永 eternity
• 複 multiple
• 翌 next
• 補 supplement
• 旧 former
• 並 line up
• 逆 reverse
• 久 long time
• 停 stop
• 順 order

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

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