字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

stiff, hard

On’yomi コウ
Kun’yomi かた.い

Origin

This character combines stone (石) on the left, which classifies the character as being about hard materials, with a sound hint (更) on the right that indicates the pronunciation. The stone radical makes sense because stone is one of the hardest natural substances people encounter. By pairing the stone radical with a sound component, the character came to mean hardness or stiffness in general, extending beyond just literal stone to anything rigid or unyielding.

硬 12 strokes

Components

  • 石 radical left
  • 更 sound hint right

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

Common words

  • 強硬 きょうこう firm; strong
  • 硬い かたい hard; solid
  • 硬化 こうか hardening; vulcanization
  • 硬貨 こうか coin
  • 硬式 こうしき hard (esp. of hardball, tennis, etc.)
  • 硬質 こうしつ hardness; stiffness
  • 硬直 こうちょく stiffening; rigidity
  • 硬度 こうど hardness; solidity

Related kanji

Same sound component 更
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
12
Kangxi radical
112
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1101 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+0786C