字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

achievement, merits, success, honor, credit

On’yomi コウ、ク
Kun’yomi いさお
Nanori いさ、かつ、くぬ、ぐう、こと、つとむ、とし、のり、よし

Origin

The character 功 combines two components to express the idea of achievement. The right side, 力 (power or strength), directly represents the physical or mental effort needed to accomplish something. The left side, 工, serves as a sound hint suggesting how the character should be pronounced, rather than adding to the meaning. Together, the pairing of "power" with a sound indicator creates a character that captures both the effort involved in success and how that concept is spoken aloud.

功 5 strokes

Components

  • 工 sound hint left
  • 力 radical right

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 功績 こうせき achievement; meritorious deed
  • 功名 こうみょう great achievement; glorious deed
  • 功労 こうろう meritorious deed; services
  • 成功 せいこう success; achievement
  • 年功 ねんこう long service
  • 奏功 そうこう success; achievement
  • 大成功 だいせいこう great success; huge success
  • 年功序列 ねんこうじょれつ seniority by length of service

Related kanji

Same sound component 工
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
5
Kangxi radical
19
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#857 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+0529F