me / メ
The fourth M-row katakana — “me” in two crossing strokes, taken from the kanji 女 (woman).
Pronunciation
The character メ represents the syllable 'me', identical in pronunciation to hiragana め. Common in loanwords for email, menu, memo, camera, makeup, message, media, ramen, and many compounds.
メ carries the same “me” as hiragana め. Its two crossing strokes come from the kanji 女 (woman). It opens loanwords like メール (email), メニュー (menu), メモ (memo), メイク (makeup), and recurs in カメラ (camera).
How to write メ
Trace メ on the canvas at the top of the page. Animated arrows show each stroke's direction; trace along them and the stroke fills in. Each numbered step below explains what that stroke does.
A diagonal stroke from the upper left, slanting down to the lower right.
A longer diagonal from the upper right, crossing the first as it sweeps down to the lower left — the crossing that comes from the kanji 女.
Origin
Katakana メ comes from the kanji 女 (me / onna, “woman”). The crossed 乂 strokes at its centre became メ; the rest of 女 was left behind.
Common words starting with メ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing メ by hand — the top row shows the stroke order to trace, then fill the blank squares.
Lock it into memory
Reading is only half of it. Drill the katakana you’ve learned with spaced-repetition flashcards — the fastest way to make them stick.