Meaning & readings
consider, think over
On’yomi コウ
Kun’yomi かんが.える、かんが.え
Nanori たか
Origin
The character 考 combines an element related to age or the elderly (耂, which also appears in characters about old age) with a sound component 丂 that hints at its pronunciation. The connection between "old" and "think" likely comes from the idea that elderly people have accumulated wisdom and experience—they think deeply and reflect on life. Over time, the character's meaning shifted to focus more generally on the act of thinking or considering, though the visual shape that started as a picture of an old person remains.
Components
- 耂
- 丂
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 6
- Kangxi radical
- 125
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #196 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+08003