Meaning & readings
yield, bend, flinch, submit
On’yomi クツ
Kun’yomi かが.む、かが.める
Nanori くっ
Origin
This character combines "corpse" (尸) with "emerge" or "come out" (出). The logic appears to be: when a body bends or crouches, it is no longer standing upright but folded inward, the opposite of emerging outward. Over time, this visual idea of folding or bending inward extended to mean yielding, submitting, or flinching—all actions where you pull back or fold rather than stand firm and push forward. The shape captures the posture of someone bowing or bending in submission.
Components
- 尸
- 出
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 8
- Kangxi radical
- 44
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1434 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+05C48