掃 sweep

(handleft) + (snout) + (swordswallower)
★★★☆☆
11 strokes

Onyomi

SOU

This room is SO dirty. Sweep it!

Mnemonic

Take your hand, and sweep the snouts off the floor of the sword-swallower's room (he's been practicing on pigs again)

Kunyomi

は*く sweep KANA
★★☆☆☆

Jukugo

掃除(そうじ) する

house-cleaning ★★★☆☆ FP1/2 KANA
掃 (sweep) + 除 (exclude) = 掃除 (house-cleaning)

house-cleaning. Not just sweeping, but vacuuming, straightening up, smacking the futon, etc.

Lookalikes

Meaning Hint Radical
掃 sweep HAND 手
帰 go back home SWORD 刀
侵 perpetrate PERSON 人
浸 immerse WATER 水

You use your HANDS to clean,

but use your SWORD to go home

(since there are zombies in your driveway, duh).

A PERSON perpetrates a crime by immersing a wicked witch in WATER. That might have been cool in the '40s but now it's a hate-crime.

Synonyms

housekeeping, housework
掃除    家事