Meaning & readings
lecture, club, association
Origin
The character 講 combines the radical 言, which means "words" or "speech," on the left side with the component 冓 on the right, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation コウ. The connection to "lecture" and "association" comes from the idea of speaking or talking — specifically, the formal exchange of words that happens when people gather to discuss and learn together. Over time, this sense of organized speech developed into meanings like "lecture," "lesson," and by extension, a "club" or "association" where such discussion takes place.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 言
- 冓
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 休講 きゅうこう cancellation (of a lecture, class, etc.)
- 講演 こうえん lecture; address
- 講義 こうぎ lecture
- 講座 こうざ course (e.g. of lectures)
- 講師 こうし speaker; lecturer
- 講習 こうしゅう short course; training
- 講談 こうだん storytelling (of war chronicles, revenge tales, etc.) with highly dramatic delivery; story
- 講堂 こうどう auditorium; lecture hall
Reference
- Strokes
- 17
- Kangxi radical
- 149
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #653 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+08B1B