孔 (kǒng) · hole, opening, aperture

Measure Word

一个孔 gè

Meanings

1 hole
2 opening
3 aperture
4 a surname (Kong)

Characters

孔

kǒng

hole; opening; surname Kong

Examples

HSK 5

墙上有一个小孔。

Qiáng shàng yǒu yī gè xiǎo kǒng.

There is a small hole in the wall.

HSK 5

孔子是中国古代伟大的思想家。

Kǒngzǐ shì Zhōngguó gǔdài wěidà de sīxiǎngjiā.

Confucius was a great thinker of ancient China.

Tips

culture

孔子 (Confucius) is the most famous bearer of this surname. His teachings shaped Chinese civilization for over 2,000 years.

usage

As 'hole', 孔 is more formal/technical than 洞. Used in compounds like 毛孔 (pores), 鼻孔 (nostrils), 针孔 (pinhole).

Components

radical

子 zǐ

child; infant

Child radical on the left - pictograph of a swaddled infant. 孔 originally pictured a baby suckling at the breast, with the curved stroke on the right depicting the breast itself. From 'breast' developed the senses 'opening, hole, passageway' - what the baby drinks through. Same radical heads 字 character, 孩 child, 学 study.

ideograph

乚 yǐ

concealing curve (here a depictive stroke)

Right side is a single curving stroke - historically depicted the mother's breast above the suckling child. In the modern character it functions as a position-marker showing where the opening / aperture is. Pure visual indicator, not phonetic and not a semantic radical with its own family.