Meaning & readings

revelation, tell, inform, announce

On’yomi コク
Kun’yomi つ.げる
Nanori

Origin

This character combines a picture of a cow or ox (, top) with a mouth or opening (, bottom). The idea is that the cow's mouth is used to make an announcement — when something is proclaimed out loud, it spreads like the sound from an animal's mouth. Over time, the character came to mean "to tell" or "announce" more broadly, representing the act of speaking something aloud so others will hear and know about it.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).

7 strokes

Components

  • meaning part top
  • radical bottom

Common words

  • 戒告 かいこく admonition; warning
  • 勧告 かんこく advice; counsel
  • 警告 けいこく warning; caution
  • 原告 げんこく plaintiff; accuser
  • 広告 こうこく advertisement; advertising
  • 告示 こくじ notice; bulletin
  • 告訴 こくそ accusation; complaint
  • 告知 こくち notice; notification

Reference

Strokes
7
Kangxi radical
30
Grade
Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#188 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+0544A