What does the kanji 先 mean?

The kanji 先 (saki) means "before, ahead, previous, future, precedence". It is a JLPT N5 character.

What kanji is "saki"?

"saki" is written with the kanji 先, meaning "before, ahead, previous, future, precedence". Its readings are onyomi (Chinese-derived) せん (sen), kunyomi (native Japanese) さき (saki), まず (mazu). It is a JLPT N5 character.

How do you write the kanji 先?

Write 先 ("before") by following the correct stroke order. Use the interactive, step-by-step stroke order animation on this page to practise each stroke in sequence and build muscle memory.

What are the readings of 先?

先 has these readings: onyomi (Chinese-derived) せん (sen), kunyomi (native Japanese) さき (saki), まず (mazu).

先“before” Kanjisaki / sen

JLPT N5

How to write 先

先 (before) kanji stroke order diagram with numbered strokes

Meaning and readings

Meaning

before, ahead, previous, future, precedence

Onyomi (音読み)

せん sen

Chinese reading

Kunyomi (訓読み)

さき saki
ま（ず） ma(zu)

Japanese reading

Practice 先 on paper — a printable tracing grid with stroke order

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Example sentences using 先

Human-reviewed sentence pairs from the Tatoeba corpus, with readings shown above the kanji.

もうちょっと先さきまでいってください。
Please go a little further.
先 (さき)
JP#194388bytommy__sanEN#12430815byCKCC BY 2.0 FR Tatoeba Project
先日せんじつはどうもありがとう。
Thank you for the other day.
先日 (せんじつ)
JP#141469bybunbukuEN#273101byCKCC BY 2.0 FR Tatoeba Project
あなたは先月せんげつから日本にほんにいますか。
Have you been in Japan since last month?
先月 (せんげつ)
JP#231792byarihatoEN#69159byShiawaseCC BY 2.0 FR Tatoeba Project

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Read 先 in a story

Short Japanese comics written so that every word in them is JLPT N5. One of them teaches this character — the match is on the words an episode teaches, not every character in its dialogue.