Meaning & readings

headland, cape, spit, promontory

On’yomi コウ
Kun’yomi みさき
Nanori さき

Origin

This character represents a promontory or headland by combining the idea of a mountain with a sound hint. The left component, mountain, establishes the geographic feature being described. The right component serves as a sound hint for the character's pronunciation rather than adding to the meaning. Together, the mountain radical paired with this phonetic guide created a character that describes the distinctive peaked formations where land juts out into the sea, like a small mountain extending into water.

岬 8 strokes

Components

  • 山 radical left
  • 甲 sound hint right

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

Reference

Strokes
8
Kangxi radical
46
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1972 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+05CAC