noun #23,489

Meanings

  1. 1 jade-like stone
  2. 2 white jade
  3. 3 used in personal names

Examples

HSK 1
Tā de míngzi lǐ yǒu yīgè kē zì.
Her name contains the character 珂.
HSK 7-9
Kē zài gǔdài bèi shìwéi zhēnguì de yùshí.
Ke was regarded as a precious jade-like stone in ancient times.

Tips

usage
is rarely used in everyday speech. It appears mainly in literary contexts and personal names, where it conveys elegance and the beauty of jade.

Components

radical
wáng
jade (radical form)
on the left is the jade radical in compressed left-side form, the bottom dot dropped. It tags as a precious-stone word, grouping it with (agate), (treasure), and (pearl).
phonetic
can; permit
supplies the reading, shifting tone from kě to kē. The same phonetic anchors a wide family - (river), (elder brother), (what) - all hovering around the ke and he syllables.

Stroke Order