口 (kǒu): mouth

Meanings

1 mouth
2 opening
3 entrance

Characters

口

kǒu

mouth; opening

Examples

我口渴了。

Wǒ kǒukě le.

I'm thirsty.

你家有几口人？

Nǐ jiā yǒu jǐ kǒu rén?

How many people are in your family?

Tips

memory

The character 口 is a pictograph — it looks like an open mouth.

usage

口 is also a measure word for people in a family (几口人) and for bites of food (吃一口).

Components

pictograph

口 kǒu

mouth; opening

Self-component pictograph of an open mouth — a rectangle showing parted lips around a hollow opening. Itself Kangxi radical #30, one of the most productive radicals in the language. Appears in eating, speaking, calling, crying, and breathing characters (吃, 喝, 唱, 叫, 听, 哭, 喂, 问), and also marks generic openings: gates, entrances, vessels.

Radical

Mouth Kangxi #30

Among the most productive radicals in Chinese. A reliable semantic clue for speech, eating, sound, and openings: 吃, 喝, 唱, 叫, 听, 喂, 哭, 名, 问, 语. Almost any character with a square box on the left or top is filed here.