Meaning & readings

angle, corner, square, horn, antlers

On’yomi カク
Kun’yomi かど、つの
Nanori い、す、すみ、ずみ、ふさ

Origin

This character appears to be a picture of an animal's horn or antler. The curved strokes at the top represent the pointed projection, while the vertical line anchors it to the head. Because horns jut out at angles and come to sharp points, the character naturally came to mean "corner" and "angle" — sharp projections that stick out from a surface, just like a horn sticks out from an animal's head.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.

7 strokes

Components

This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (角).

Common words

  • 一角 いっかく corner; section
  • 鋭角 えいかく acute angle
  • 外角 がいかく external angle; exterior angle
  • 街角 まちかど street corner
  • 角度 かくど angle
  • 角膜 かくまく cornea
  • 互角 ごかく equal (in ability); even
  • 三角 さんかく triangle; triangular shape

Reference

Strokes
7
Kangxi radical
148
Grade
Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#805 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 2
Unicode
U+089D2