Meaning & readings
erect, frame, mount, support, shelf, construct
On’yomi カ
Kun’yomi か.ける、か.かる
Origin
This character combines wood (the bottom component, which classifies it as something made of timber) with a sound hint at the top that suggests how to pronounce it. The character originally depicted a wooden frame or structure built by placing beams across to support or elevate something—like how you might construct a shelf or mount an object on a wooden frame. The wood component makes sense because in ancient Japan and China, frameworks, shelves, and supports were typically made of wood. Over time, the meaning broadened to include any kind of erected structure or supporting framework, whether wooden or not.
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 75
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1555 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+067B6