Kanji Kaisen

漢字Kanji · in Nature & Elements

坑: pit, hole

JLPT N17 strokesSecondary schoolYour ink: 白 Not met

土 carries the meaning · 亢 gives the sound

7 strokes
  • Small seal · Qin
  • Today

Small seal: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.

One reading, and the words that use it

コウkou · on'yomi · in compounds

  • 坑内こうないwithin a pit or (mine) shaft
  • 坑道こうどうtunnel; (mining) gallery; level
  • 廃坑はいこうclosure of a mine; abandoned mine
  • 坑口こうこうpithead; minehead

Words: JMdict, EDRDG, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Learn it 4 steps
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成り立ち

Where it comes from

Memory story · made up to help you remember

“Imagine a cross planted firmly in the ground—that's 土! It shows a stake or a seedling marking the earth, reminding us of farming, construction, and the solid foundation upon which we build our lives and cities.”
More in the 土 earth story
繋がり
Ink shades, lightest to darkest: 白 Not met, 淡 Met, 中 Learning, 濃 Familiar, 印 Mastered
土

Also built on earth (土)

All 61
亢

Also built on 亢

坑 takes the 亢 family's reading, コウ (kou).

Also read コウ

96 kanji share this on'yomiAll 96

Easy to confuse

The difference, side by side
坑 pit · 土
vs抗 confront · 扌
坑 has 土 where 抗 has 扌.
In ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · kēng

Same form: 坑 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).

Simplified
坑 mainland China, Singapore
Traditional
坑 Taiwan, Hong Kong

Pinyin kēng most common reading

Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.

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