掃 means “sweep, clean”

そう · sou

Also: brush

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

はく

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ソウ, シュ

JLPT N2 · Taught in secondary school · 11 strokes

The story

A hand (扌) gripping a broom (帚, the same broom as in 婦): sweeping. 掃除 is cleaning, Japanese schoolchildren clean their own classrooms every day, and at year's end homes and offices do 大掃除, the big clean.

Used in 掃除 (souji, cleaning), 大掃除 (oosouji, big year-end cleaning), and 掃除機 (soujiki, vacuum cleaner)

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