What is the Kanji for "Temple"?

If you are wondering what is the Japanese Kanji for "Temple", you've come to the right place!

The Japanese Kanji for "Temple" is "寺".

This kanji has 2 readings:

Its kunyomi reading is "Tera".

Its onyomi reading is "Ji".

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 kanji "土" means "Soil" and can be read as "Tsuchi", "To", and "Do". And The kanji "寸" means "Measurement" and can be read as "Sun".

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

What does the kanji "寺" mean in japanese?

"寺" means "Temple".

Japanese School Students learn this kanji in Second Grade, while foreigners may learn this kanji in preparation for the JLPT N2 exam.

Here are some words that use this kanji:

寺: "Temple". The Japanese word '寺 (てら)' means 'temple'. It refers to a Buddhist place of worship and religious training. Temples often have ornate architecture, gardens, and statues of Buddha. For example: I visited a beautiful temple - (美しい寺に参りました). The temple was crowded with worshippers - (寺は参拝者で混雑していた).

寺院: "Temple". The Japanese noun '寺院 (じいん)' means 'temple'. This word refers to a building or complex of buildings that is used for the worship of a religion, typically Buddhism. Temples in Japan often feature ornate architecture, statues of deities, and are places of spiritual practice and pilgrimage. For example: The old temple is in the center of the town - (その古い寺院は町の中心にある). I visited the famous temple yesterday - (私は昨日有名な寺院を訪れた).

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 "じ" is read as "ji". The hiragana "て" is read as "te". And The hiragana "ら" is read as "ra".

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.