字 Kanji Decipher

Meaning & readings

tower, tall building, palace

On’yomi カク

Origin

The character 閣 combines the door radical 門, which suggests an enclosed structure or building, with 各, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation カク. The door component establishes that this character refers to a constructed space, while the accompanying sound element helps readers know how to pronounce it. Together, these parts created a character meaning a tall, important building like a tower or palace — essentially a grand structure you'd enter through significant doors.

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

閣 14 strokes

Components

  • 門 radical enclosure
  • 各 sound hint

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

Common words

  • 閣下 かっか your Excellency; his Excellency
  • 閣議 かくぎ cabinet meeting
  • 閣僚 かくりょう cabinet ministers
  • 組閣 そかく formation of a cabinet
  • 倒閣 とうかく overthrow of government
  • 内閣 ないかく cabinet (of a government); ministry
  • 入閣 にゅうかく joining the cabinet
  • 楼閣 ろうかく multistoried building; castle

Related kanji

Same sound component 各
Same radical

Reference

Strokes
14
Kangxi radical
169
Grade
Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
Frequency rank
#444 (newspapers)
Former JLPT
level 1
Unicode
U+095A3