Meaning & readings
posture, stance, appearance, build, set up
On’yomi コウ
Kun’yomi かま.える、かま.う
Nanori とち
Origin
This character combines wood (木) on the left as a meaning hint with a sound component (冓) on the right that suggests its pronunciation. The wood radical signals that this character relates to wooden structures or frameworks. The overall sense is of constructing or arranging something into a particular form or posture — like how wooden beams are assembled and positioned to create a building's structure. Over time, the meaning broadened from physical construction to the more abstract idea of posture, stance, or appearance: the way something is "built" or arranged.
Components
- 木
- 冓
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 14
- Kangxi radical
- 75
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #316 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+069CB