Chinese Character Wiki
可

kě, kè

able to

Original meaning: 

sing

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and the right component, which is a pictograph of an axe handle (now written as 柯), represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "sing", now written as 歌. The current meaning "able to" is a phonetic loan.

Components
口 meaning component

口  Meaning component

kǒu

  

mouth

柯 sound,remnant component

柯  Sound Remnant component

kē

  

axe-handle

Depicts an axe handle. Original form of 柯.

Evolution

可 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
可 Bronze script Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
可 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
可 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
可 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

可  

kě

may, can, -able; possibly; can; may; able to; to approve; to permit; to suit; (particle used for emphasis) certainly; very

可  

kè

see 可汗[kè​hán]

Most common words with 可
Freq.
Word
Meaning

可以

can

可

can

可能

possible

可是

but

可爱

adorable

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

珂

Sound component in 20 characters (6 verified)

何 阿 奇 河 哥 柯 呵 苛 珂 訶 诃 軻 轲 坷 舸 岢 疴 哿 蚵 钶

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[k]ʰˤa[j]ʔ

khaX

kě

may; acceptable


Statistics

HSK level 5

Appears in 99.9359% of movies

36th most common character in movies

30th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

5

Unicode

U+53EF

Shuowen

“可，肎也。从口、丂，丂亦聲。”


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