Meaning & readings

earnings, work, earn money

On’yomi
Kun’yomi かせ.ぐ

Origin

This character combines the grain radical 禾, which represents crops or agricultural work, with the component that serves as a sound hint for the character's pronunciation. The grain radical suggests the idea of harvest and agricultural labor, while contributes the sound "ka" to guide how the character should be pronounced. Together, the shape conveys the concept of working the fields to produce crops and earn one's livelihood, which is why the character means earnings or work.

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

15 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

  • 稼ぎ かせぎ earnings
  • 稼ぐ かせぐ to earn (income); to make (money)
  • 稼業 かぎょう trade; business
  • 稼働 かどう operation (of a machine); running
  • 共稼ぎ ともかせぎ (husband and wife) earning a living together
  • 出稼ぎ でかせぎ working away from home (esp. abroad)
  • 稼働率 かどうりつ operating rate; utilization rate

Reference

Strokes
15
Kangxi radical
115
Grade
Jōyō (secondary school)
Frequency rank
#1264 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+07A3C