字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

skids, leg, undercarriage, lower part, base

On’yomi キャク、キャ、カク
Kun’yomi あし
Nanori し

Origin

The left side, the flesh radical (the component for body parts), tells you this character is about the body. The right side, 却, serves as a sound hint showing roughly how to pronounce the character. Together they create a character meaning leg or foot — the flesh component identifies it as a body part, while the sound component anchors its pronunciation. Over time, this character extended to mean the base or undercarriage of things, since legs support and form the foundation of a structure.

脚 11 strokes

Components

  • 月 radical left
  • 却 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

  • 脚色 きゃくしょく dramatization (e.g. of a novel); dramatisation
  • 脚本 きゃくほん script; screenplay
  • 橋脚 きょうきゃく bridge pier; pontoon bridge
  • 行脚 あんぎゃ pilgrimage
  • 失脚 しっきゃく losing one's position; losing one's standing
  • 立脚 りっきゃく being based on
  • 脚光 きゃっこう footlight; limelight
  • 二人三脚 ににんさんきゃく three-legged race

Related kanji

Same radical

Reference

Strokes
11
Kangxi radical
130
Formation type
Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1228 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+0811A