Meaning & readings
connection, barrier, gateway, involve, concerning
On’yomi カン
Kun’yomi せき、-ぜき、かか.わる、からくり、かんぬき
Origin
This character combines the radical 門, which represents a gate or doorway, with 关 as a sound hint that suggests the pronunciation "kan." The gate radical makes sense for the meanings of barrier and gateway—physical structures that control passage and connection between spaces. Over time, the character extended to mean anything that relates or involves things together, since gates are what connect different areas. The sound component 关 doesn't tell you about the meaning; it's simply there to indicate how the word should be pronounced in Chinese-derived readings.
Components
- 門
- 关
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 関係 かんけい relation; relationship
- 関心 かんしん concern; interest
- 関西 かんさい Kansai (region comprising Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe and surrounding prefectures)
- 関税 かんぜい customs (duties); duty
- 関節 かんせつ joint
- 関知 かんち (one's) concern; having (something) to do with
- 関東 かんとう Kantō (region comprising Tokyo and surrounding prefectures)
- 関門 かんもん barrier; checkpoint
Reference
- Strokes
- 14
- Kangxi radical
- 169
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #70 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+095A2