ro / ロ
The last of the R row — “ro,” a neat box in three strokes, exactly like the kanji 口 (mouth).
Pronunciation
The character ロ represents the syllable 'ro', identical in pronunciation to hiragana ろ. Common in loanwords for robot, lobby, Europe, rocket, romance, Russia, melon, Rome, London, rock, and many more.
ロ matches hiragana ろ — a soft “ro.” It's a clean square, identical to the kanji 口 (mouth), which makes it easy to spot. It opens loanwords like ロボット (robot), ロケット (rocket), ロビー (lobby), and recurs in ヨーロッパ (Europe).
How to write ロ
Trace ロ 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 vertical stroke down the left side.
A stroke across the top that turns and runs down the right side.
A horizontal stroke closing the bottom — a neat box, exactly like the kanji 口 (mouth).
Origin
Katakana ロ comes from the kanji 呂 (ro), which is two 口 boxes stacked. Katakana kept just one of them — which is why ロ is a single clean square.
Common words starting with ロ
Printable practice sheet
Print this worksheet to practice writing ロ 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.