Kanji quizzes for the joy of reading
How do you read 蛍 in Japanese?
Tiny lights by the water at night.
Make the words you meet in books your own, one quiz at a time. Discover Japanese kanji readings, meanings and usage with DuraRing.
Unfamiliar kanji? Scan and look it up.Explore the OCR & AI dictionaryHow do you read this in Japanese?
Read it as the name of an insect that glows on summer nights.
HINTShow hint
An insect often found in descriptions of summer nights. Three hiragana beginning with ho.
More on radicals and this quiz’s stroke counts
Describe the shapes you see
You do not need to know the radical’s name. Try these searches for this quiz’s characters.
虫 under ツ and 冖 kanji
glowing insect 11 stroke kanji
kanji like 学 with 虫 at the bottom
These searches describe visual similarities, not formal radicals or character components.
蛍 has 11 strokes and the radical 虫 (insect). Radicals are dictionary classifications. The shape-based search phrases below provide other lookup clues.
蛍11 strokes / radical: 虫 (insect)
Stroke counts and radicals follow the Japanese dictionary Kanjipedia; other dictionaries may differ.
ANSWERShow answerHide answer
The answer is
ほたる
hotaru
蛍
Understand the meaning
English translationFirefly
Fireflies, beetles known for species that produce light from their abdomen. They often illuminate waterside scenes in summer stories.
See it in a sentence
夕暮れの小川で、蛍がゆっくり光を点滅させた。At dusk, a firefly slowly blinked its light beside the stream.
A way to remember
The insect is hotaru, while 蛍光 uses the reading kei. Connecting the two helps recall the character.
Sources：Kanjipedia: 蛍
The explanation draws on the sources below. Examples were written for this page.
Explore the word further
Using 蛍
蛍が光る and 蛍を探す work in a night scene. Describe the surrounding darkness alongside the small light to capture the moment of discovery.
例：橋の上で待っていると、草むらに蛍の光が見えた。
While we waited on the bridge, a firefly’s light appeared in the grass.
Reading and meaning in context
蛍 names the insect. Use a phrase such as 蛍の光 when you want to focus specifically on its light.
References for this explanation：Kanjipedia: 蛍
Explanation checked on 2026-10-23. Additional examples were written by DuraRing for this page.
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