Meaning & readings
consign, requesting, entrusting with, pretend, hint
On’yomi タク
Kun’yomi かこつ.ける、かこ.つ、かこ.つける
Origin
This character combines "words" on the left (言) with a sound hint on the right (乇) that suggests how to pronounce it. The "words" component makes sense because "to entrust" or "to consign" often involves asking someone verbally or making a verbal request—you're using language to hand something over to another person's care. The right component is mainly there to guide pronunciation, not to add meaning. Over time, the character also picked up related senses like "to pretend" or "to hint," which still involve some form of communication or indirection through speech.
Components
- 言
- 乇
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 委託 いたく entrusting (something to a person); consignment (of goods)
- 屈託 くったく worry; care
- 結託 けったく conspiracy; collusion
- 受託 じゅたく being entrusted with; taking charge of
- 嘱託 しょくたく commission; entrusting with (work)
- 信託 しんたく trust; entrusting
- 託宣 たくせん oracle; revelation
- 託す たくす to entrust (someone) with; to leave (a matter) with someone
Reference
- Strokes
- 10
- Kangxi radical
- 149
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1021 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+08A17