# 草 — grass

草 means “grass”. It is a JLPT N3 kanji written with 9 strokes. On'yomi: ソウ (sou). Kun'yomi: くさ (kusa). You'll see it in words such as 草 (kusa, “grass; weed”).

- Meaning: grass
- On'yomi: ソウ (sou)
- Kun'yomi: くさ (kusa)
- Strokes: 9
- Level: JLPT N3 · set Plants & farming 2

## How to remember 草

Sounds like 早: both read ソウ.

Parts: 艹 grass · 早 early

## Words with 草

| Word | Reading | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 草 | くさ (kusa) | grass; weed |
| ほうれん草 | ほうれんそう (hourensou) | spinach |
| 草むしり | くさむしり (kusamushiri) | weeding; weeder |

## Don't confuse it with

[早](https://moji.ninja/n4-kanji/early/) · [朝](https://moji.ninja/n4-kanji/morning/) · [苦](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/bitter/) · [著](https://moji.ninja/n2-kanji/author/)

## More in the “Plants & farming 2” set

[根](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/root/) · [植](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/plant/) · [草](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/grass/) · [畑](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/farm-plot/) · [麦](https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/wheat/)

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From Moji Ninja (https://moji.ninja/), a free app for learning hiragana, katakana and the JLPT kanji from N5 to N1 with spaced repetition. Page: https://moji.ninja/n3-kanji/grass/. Last updated 2026-11-01.