孔 means “hole, pore”

こう · kou

Also: cavity, slit, very

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

あな

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

コウ, ク

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 4 strokes

The story

A child (子) beside one long hooked stroke (乚): picture a child peering through a hole bored in a fence. 孔 is a hole or a pore: 鼻孔 is a nostril, 気孔 the pores of a leaf, and 孔子 is Confucius.

Used in 孔子 (koushi, Confucius), 鼻孔 (bikou, nostril), and 気孔 (kikou, stoma/pore)

More from Shapes & Angles

• 凸 convex
• 凹 concave
• 弧 arc
• 隙 gap
• 環 ring
• 枠 frame
• 端 edge
• 距 distance
• 圏 sphere
• 縦 vertical
• 緯 latitude
• 径 diameter

Learn 孔 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.