刻kè

刻

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Simplified · Today

简体

Simplified Chinese

Modern simplified form (簡體). 刻 (kè, "to carve, a moment") remains unchanged from traditional writing — the knife radical 刀 on the left clearly signals its original meaning of incising or engraving, while the right component 亥 provides the sound. This character once marked the quarter-hour divisions on sundials, each刻 representing the time it took for sunlight to move between notches, bridging the physical act of cutting stone and the abstract measurement of fleeting moments.

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Shuowen

刻 is formed with 刀 (knife) as the semantic component and 亥 as the phonetic, depicting the act of carving or incising; originally meaning to cut or engrave, it later came to signify a moment or instant by the metaphor of cutting time into brief segments.

Pinyin

kè· HSK 1

刻kè

Character evolution

Shuowen

Pinyin