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Everyday kanjiPublished 2026-10-22

How do you read 蒲公英 in Japanese?
A familiar name, written differently.

From words in books to everyday names, discover the joy of reading Japanese kanji, one question at a time.

QUESTION 02Difficulty ★★★

How do you read this in Japanese?

蒲公英

Think of your answer before you look.

HINTShow hint

A familiar plant with yellow flowers and fluffy white seeds carried by the wind. Its Japanese reading has four hiragana characters.

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.

kanji with grass radical above 浦
kanji with ハ above ム
kanji with grass radical above 央

These searches describe visual similarities, not formal radicals or character components.

The grass radical in 蒲 and 英 often appears in plant-related kanji. 公 is classified under 八. Radicals alone cannot tell you the Japanese reading of 蒲公英.

蒲13 strokes / radical: 艸 (grass radical)

公4 strokes / radical: 八 (eight radical)

英8 strokes / radical: 艸 (grass radical)

Stroke counts and radicals follow the Japanese dictionary Kanjipedia; other dictionaries may differ.

Kanjipedia「蒲」／ Kanjipedia「公」／ Kanjipedia「英」

ANSWERShow answerHide answer

The answer is

たんぽぽ

tanpopo

蒲公英

Understand the meaning

This word means dandelion, a plant in the aster family found in fields and along paths. Its fluffy seed heads let the wind carry the seeds. 蒲公英 is its kanji spelling.

An illustration of yellow dandelion flowers, a white seed head and seeds drifting on the wind. — **From yellow flowers to drifting seeds.**AI-generated illustration

See it in a sentence

道ばたの蒲公英の綿毛が、風に乗って飛んでいった。

The dandelion fluff by the path drifted away on the wind.

A way to remember

Learn the whole spelling 蒲公英 as the plant’s name rather than combining each character’s on-reading.

Sources：Kanjipedia: 蒲公英

The explanation draws on the sources below. Examples were written for this page.

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shinnyo radical 11 stroke kanji

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kanji with two 火 stacked vertically

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Windows · Microsoft Japanese IME

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How do you read this in Japanese?

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