King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “speck”

Romaji: ten
dot; spot; point; speck

In Japanese, speck is , read (ten).

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Meanings

  1. n dot; spot; point; speck; mark
  2. n mark (in an exam, etc.); grade; score; points
  3. n point (in a game); score; goal; run
  4. n point (geom)
  5. n point; aspect; matter; detail; part; respect
  6. n (punctuation) mark (e.g. comma, period, decimal point); dot

Kanji and stroke order

spot, point, mark
on: テン
kun: つ.ける、つ.く、た.てる、さ.す
9 strokes · JLPT 2

Other Japanese words for “speck”

WordReadingMeaning
いってん ittenpoint; dot; speck
へんえい hen'eispeck; glimpse

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
してん shitenpoint of view; viewpoint; angle
ちてん chitenspot; point; place
じてん jitenpoint in time; occasion
しょうてん shoutenfocus; focal point
てんすう tensuumarks; points; score
げんてん gentenstarting point; origin; beginning

See also: Chinese symbol for “speck”.

Data: JMdict (CC BY-SA 4.0); KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.