plane, sharpen, whittle, pare
Also: shave
On'yomi (音読み)
- サク
Kun'yomi (訓読み)
- けず.る
- はつ.る
- そ.ぐ
About this kanji
The kanji 削 means to plane, sharpen, or shave something down. It is commonly used as a verb and also appears in various nouns. For example, 削減 (さくげん) means "cut" or "reduction," often used in discussions about budgets or expenses. Another usage is 削る (けずる), which means "to shave" something like wood or leather. Additionally, 削除 (さくじょ) means "deletion," referring to removing content, such as files. When learning this kanji, note that it often conveys the idea of reducing or refining something by removing material.
Example sentences
冗長な部分を削った。
I deleted the redundant parts.
Meanings across languages
- English
- plane, sharpen, whittle, pare, shave
- Tiếng Việt
- phẳng, mài, đục, cắt gọn, cạo
- 日本語
- 平らにする, 研ぐ, 削る, 切る, 剃る
- 한국어
- 평평하게 하다, 갈다, 깎다, 치수 줄이다, 면도하다
- 中文
- 刨平, 削尖, 切削, 削减, 剃
- id
- meratakan
- th
- เหลา
- es
- afilar
- fr
- tailler
- de
- Schleifen
- pt
- alisar
Common compounds
- 削減cut, reduction, curtailment
- 削るto shave (wood, leather, etc.), to sharpen (e.g. pencil), to plane
- 削除deletion, elimination, erasure
- 添削correction, looking over, touching up
- 掘削digging out, excavation
- 削り節flaked bonito
- 荒削りrough-hewn, incomplete, unrefined
- 削り取るto shave off, to scrape off
Words using this kanji
Want to actually learn this kanji?
The dictionary is one view. The Kanji 360 app wraps every character with mnemonic images, audio readings, stroke-order animation, story context, and SRS scheduling — free to start on iPhone, iPad, and Android.