Kanji1 / 9
祖 kanji
ancestor, pioneer, founder
- JLPT level
- N3 (unofficial)
- First appears in
- N4 vocabulary
- Strokes
- 9
- School grade
- Grade 5 (elementary school)
On readings
ソ
Kun readings
NoneVariant forms
祖Words with 祖
LevelWord & meaningActions
- —祖宗ancestors
- —祖述exposition (propagation) of one's master's teachings or doctrines
- —父祖ancestors
- —祖師founder of a sect
- —祖語protolanguage; parent language
- —祖廟mausoleum containing the remains of one's ancestors
- —皇祖(divine, historical or legendary) founder of an empire
- —高祖founder of dynasty or sect
- —初祖the first generation of a family; school (of thought) or religious sect
- —祖霊ancestor spirit; ancestral soul; spirits of one's ancestors; collective ancestral spirit; (in Japanese folk belief) spirits of one's ancestors that have lost their individual identity and merged together
- —真祖(in fiction) person changed into a vampire by magic
- —藩祖ancestor of a feudal lord; founder of a feudal domain
- —媽祖Mazu (Chinese goddess of the sea)
- —祖神ancestor worshipped as a deity
- —祖妣deceased grandmother
- —祖考deceased grandfather; deceased father and grandfather; distant ancestor; forefather
- —祖業business started by an ancestor; inherited business
- —祖形protoform
- —祖法rules and customs handed down over the generations
- —外祖父maternal grandfather