頓 means “tidy, sudden”

とん · ton

Also: suddenly, immediately, in a hurry, arrange

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

にわかに, とんと, つまずく, とみに, ぬかずく

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

トン, トツ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 13 strokes

The story

A head (頁) bowed sharply: 頓 once meant knocking your head to the ground in a bow. Today it fills 整理整頓, sort and tidy, the slogan on classroom and factory walls, 頓挫, a plan suddenly stalling, and 無頓着, not caring a bit.

Used in 整頓 (seiton, tidying up), 頓挫 (tonza, setback/stall), and 無頓着 (mutonchaku, indifferent)

More from Order & Rank

• 汰 weed out
• 率 rate
• 整 arrange
• 級 grade
• 序 order
• 斉 all together
• 秩 order
• 衡 balance
• 逓 relay
• 逐 pursue

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

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