What is the Kanji for "Fear", "Afraid", and "Scary"?

If you are wondering what is the Japanese Kanji for "Fear", "Afraid", and "Scary", you've come to the right place!

The Japanese Kanji for "Fear", "Afraid", and "Scary" is "怖".

This kanji has 2 readings:

Its kunyomi reading is "Kowa".

Its onyomi reading is "Fu".

kunyomi readings are based on the pronunciation of native Japanese words, and onyomi readings are based on the Chinese pronunciation of the character.

If you visually breakdown this kanji, you can see is made up of 2 parts:

The component "忄" . And The kanji "布" means "Cloth" and "Linen" and can be read as "Fu" and "Nuno".

Now, let's make sure you understand this kanji the other way around too.

What does the kanji "怖" mean in japanese?

"怖" means "Fear", "Afraid", and "Scary".

Japanese School Students learn this kanji in Junior Highschool, while foreigners may learn this kanji in preparation for the JLPT N3 exam.

Here are some words that use this kanji:

怖い: "Scary". The Japanese adjective '怖い (こわい)' means 'scary'. This adjective is used to describe something that causes fear or is frightening. It can be used to describe objects, situations, or even people. For example: That movie was really scary - (あの映画はとてもこわかった). The haunted house was very scary - (あの廃屋はとてもこわかった).

恐怖: "Fear". The noun '恐怖 (きょうふ)' means 'fear'. This word refers to a strong feeling of unease or anxiety caused by the presence or expectation of danger. It can be used to describe a person's emotional state in response to a threatening situation or event. For example: I felt fear when I heard the loud noise - (大きな音が聞こえて、私は恐怖を感じた). The horror movie filled the audience with fear - (ホラー映画で観客は恐怖に怯えていた).

怖がる: "Fear". The Japanese verb '怖がる (こわがる)' means 'to fear' or 'to be afraid'. It is used to express the emotion of fear or apprehension towards something. For example: He fears the dark - (彼は暗闇を怖がる). She is afraid of spiders - (彼女は蜘蛛を怖がる).

To make really sure you learn this Kanji, I've prepared an interactive lesson for you. You are going to learn the readings and meanings of this kanji.

But first, you need to know a little bit about Hiragana and Katakana.

Hiragana and katakana are japanese syllabaries, this means that each character represents a syllable.

This are the characters you need to know for this lesson:

The hiragana "ふ" is read as "fu". The hiragana "こ" is read as "ko". And The hiragana "わ" is read as "wa".

Heres a quick tutorial on how to use it. You'll be asked three type of questions: meaning, reading, and writing.

For meanings questions all you have to do is type the english meaning. If there is more than one meaning, you have to include them all in your answer separating them by commas (,).

For Reading questions you have to type the reading in romaji (roman letters, our normal alphabet) and it'll be automatically converted to hiragana if necessary. If there is more than one reading, you have to include them all in your answer separating them by commas (,).

For Writing questions some options will appear and all you have to do is select the correct ones.