Meaning & readings

lean, incline, tilt, trend, wane, sink, ruin, bias

On’yomi ケイ
Kun’yomi かたむ.く、かたむ.ける、かたぶ.く、かた.げる、かし.げる

Origin

The character combines a person radical on the left (亻) with the component on the right, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation. The component doesn't contribute meaning but suggests how to pronounce the character. A person leaning or tilting their body is the core image—when someone leans, their whole posture changes and they're no longer upright. This physical action of the body bending or shifting to one side naturally extends to the broader meanings of inclining, tilting, or gradually waning over time.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).

13 strokes

Components

  • radical left
  • 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

  • 傾向 けいこう tendency; trend
  • 傾斜 けいしゃ inclination; slant
  • 傾注 けいちゅう devoting (oneself) to; concentrating (one's efforts) on
  • 傾聴 けいちょう listening closely
  • 傾倒 けいとう devoting oneself to; concentrating on
  • 傾く かたむく to incline toward; to slant
  • 傾ける かたむける to incline; to lean
  • 傾げる かしげる to tilt (esp. head); to lean

Reference

Strokes
13
Kangxi radical
9
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#938 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+050BE