Chinese Character Wiki
孔

kǒng

hole, opening

Original meaning: 

fontanelle

Depicts an opening in a child's (子) head, representing the fontanelle. Based on the original meaning "fontanelle". The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "hole" and "opening".

Components
子 iconic component

子  Iconic component

zi, zǐ

  

child

◎ iconic component

◎  Iconic component

  

characterless component

Depicts an opening.

Evolution

孔 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
孔 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

孔  

kǒng

opening, hole, orifice; great; hole; CL:個|个[gè]; classifier for cave dwellings

孔  

Kǒng

surname Kong

Most common words with 孔
Freq.
Word
Meaning

孔

hole

面孔

face

孔子

Confucius (551-479 BC), Chinese thinker and social philosopher, also known as 孔夫子[Kǒng​fū​zǐ]

瞳孔

pupil (of eye)

孔雀

peacock

Component uses

Sound component in 2 characters (0 verified)

吼 芤

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[k]ʰˤoŋʔ

khuwngX

kǒng

(surname)


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 13.8395% of movies

1790th most common character in movies

1289th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+5B54

Shuowen

“孔，通也。从乙，从子。乙，請子之候鳥也。乙至而得子，嘉美之也。古人名嘉，字子孔。”


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