字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

fear, dread, awe

On’yomi キョウ
Kun’yomi おそ.れる、おそ.る、おそ.ろしい、こわ.い、こわ.がる

Origin

The character 恐 combines the element for "heart" or "mind" at the bottom, which classifies this as a word about emotions or inner states, with a sound hint at the top that suggests the pronunciation キョウ. The pairing of the heart component with a sound indicator creates a character whose meaning — fear or dread — comes from the concept of a fearful emotional response in the mind. This structure is typical of Chinese characters where one part signals the meaning category while another guides pronunciation.

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

恐 10 strokes

Components

A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.

Common words

  • 恐れ おそれ fear; horror
  • 恐喝 きょうかつ blackmail; extortion
  • 恐慌 きょうこう panic; scare
  • 恐縮 きょうしゅく feeling (much) obliged; being (very) grateful
  • 恐怖 きょうふ fear; dread
  • 恐竜 きょうりゅう dinosaur
  • 恐らく おそらく probably; (most) likely
  • 恐怖症 きょうふしょう phobia; morbid fear

Related kanji

Same radical

Reference

Strokes
10
Kangxi radical
61
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#878 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+06050