Meaning & readings

overcome, kindly, skillfully

On’yomi コク
Kun’yomi か.つ
Nanori かつ、まさる、よし

Origin

This character combines two components to express the idea of overcoming. The top part shows something old or established, while the bottom part represents an older brother or senior figure. Together, they suggest the notion of confronting or standing up to something greater than yourself — whether that's an elder, an obstacle, or a challenge. By extension, this led to the meanings of overcoming difficulties and doing things skillfully or properly. The character essentially pictures the effort required to face down what stands before you.

克 7 strokes

Components

  • 古 meaning part top
  • 兄 meaning part bottom

Common words

  • 克服 こくふく conquest (of a difficulty, illness, crisis, etc.); overcoming
  • 克明 こくめい detailed; scrupulous

Easily confused with

These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.

Reference

Strokes
7
Kangxi radical
10
Formation type
Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1333 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+0514B