斬 means “slash, behead”

きる · kiru

Also: beheading, kill, murder

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

きる

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ザン, サン, セン, ゼン

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 11 strokes

The story

An axe (斤) beside a cart (車): picture a chariot hacked apart. 斬る is to cut down with a sword, the stuff of samurai films, but the word met most is 斬新, freshly cut: a 斬新なデザイン breaks clean from everything before it.

Used in 斬新 (zanshin, novel/original), 斬る (kiru, to slash/cut down), and 斬首 (zanshu, beheading)

More from Arms & the Hunt

• 餌 bait
• 弾 bullet
• 射 shoot
• 獲 catch
• 銃 gun
• 甲 armor
• 網 net
• 砲 cannon
• 矢 arrow
• 剣 sword
• 盾 shield
• 矛 spear

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

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