Meaning & readings

outlook, look, appearance, condition, view

On’yomi カン
Kun’yomi み.る、しめ.す

Origin

The character combines two parts: on the left is a sound hint that helps indicate how to pronounce it (roughly "kan"), and on the right is , which means "to see" or "to look." The right part carries the core meaning—something about viewing or observing. The left part is there mainly to tell you the pronunciation. Together they create a character meaning "to look at" or "view," where the emphasis is on the act of seeing something and forming an impression of its appearance or condition.

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

18 strokes

Components

  • 雚V sound hint left
  • radical right

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

Common words

  • 外観 がいかん outward appearance; exterior appearance
  • 楽観 らっかん optimism; taking an optimistic view
  • 観客 かんきゃく spectator; audience
  • 観劇 かんげき theatre-going; theater-going
  • 観光 かんこう sightseeing; tourism
  • 観察 かんさつ observation; survey
  • 観衆 かんしゅう spectators; onlookers
  • 観賞 かんしょう admiration; appreciation

Reference

Strokes
18
Kangxi radical
147
Grade
Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#476 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+089B3