塊 means “lump, mass, clod”

かたまり · katamari

Also: chunk, clot

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

かたまり, つちくれ

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

カイ, ケ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 13 strokes

The story

Earth (土) beside a demon (鬼): picture a hulking clod of soil in a monster's shape. 塊 is a lump: 金塊 is a gold bar, 団塊の世代 is Japan's postwar baby-boom generation, and the game 塊魂 has you roll everything in sight into one ball.

Used in 塊 (katamari, lump/mass), 金塊 (kinkai, gold bar), and 団塊 (dankai, mass, as in the baby-boom generation)

More from Shapes & Angles

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

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

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