Meaning & readings
each, every, either
On’yomi カク
Kun’yomi おのおの
Nanori かか、かが
Origin
The character 各 combines two parts to show the idea of "each" or "every." The top part 夂 originally depicted a foot or footstep, suggesting movement or going. The bottom part 口 is a square representing a mouth or an enclosed space, but here it stands for a single unit or item. Together, the image suggests a foot stepping into separate spaces one by one, which captures the meaning of "each person" or "each thing" going their own way — the sense of individual items taken separately rather than as a group.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Components
- 夂
- 口
Common words
- 各位 かくい everyone; each and every one (of you)
- 各国 かっこく each country; every country
- 各自 かくじ each (person); everyone
- 各種 かくしゅ every kind; all sorts
- 各地 かくち each place; every place
- 各々 おのおの each
- 世界各地 せかいかくち every part of the world; all over the world
- 世界各国 せかいかっこく countries all over the world; all the countries of the world
Reference
- Strokes
- 6
- Kangxi radical
- 30
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #243 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05404