刻 (kè) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

刻

kè[ke4]Tone 4

quarter (hour), moment, to carve

HSK 2

Guru Deep Dive

English · quarter (hour), moment, to carve

Cached lesson

1 / 1

Topology:Left-right

Strokes:8

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (the blade/knife radical) should be compact and narrower, leaving ample space for the right side component to maintain horizontal symmetry.

1. Meaning

to carve, engrave, or cut

quarter of an hour (15 minutes)a short moment or time intervalharsh or oppressive

Verb / Noun / ClassifierNeutral#time#actions#tools

Sample Usage

现在差一刻六点。
xiàn zài chà yī kè liù diǎn.
It is a quarter to six now.
这座雕刻非常精致。
zhè zuò diāo kè fēi cháng jīng zhì.
This carving is extremely exquisite.

2. Sound

/[kʰɤ˥˩]/Tone: 51

刻

kèke4

`(51)

=kè

Initial Consonant

Type: Aspirated Velar

Sounds like: k sound like in the English word 'kite'

Aspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Strong gust of air from throat! Tissue held in front MUST fly forward.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Back of tongue against soft palate

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -e vowel group

Sounds like: -e rhymes with 'uh' in 'duh'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'uh'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 starts high and plunges straight down, just like saying an emphatic 'No!' in English.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the sharp initial 'k' with 'g' (which is unaspirated), or missing the downward drop of Tone 4.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp, definitive chop downward with your hand, mirroring the falling 51 pitch from high to low.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 8 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left side (the blade/knife radical) should be compact and narrower, leaving ample space for the right side component to maintain horizontal symmetry.

4. Components

Radical 刂 · Knife Radical (knife, blade, cutting instrument)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 刂 (indicates cutting, carving, or engraving actions)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 亥 (original sound: hài/kè)

A knife (刂) cutting into a target (亥) leaves an engraved mark, and over time, water clocks used notch markings to measure a quarter-hour.

亥 provides the phonetic sound and basic frame
刂 provides the meaning of cutting or carving

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

21· Phonetic Root: 亥 (hài)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally combined the knife radical (刂) with a phonetic element (亥). Ancient people carved notches into wood or bone to keep records or measure time intervals.

Semantic Evolution: From the physical action of carving wood or stone, it extended to cutting time into neat 15-minute intervals (quarter hours) and marking specific moments.

In ancient China, time was divided into double-hour periods (时辰), which were further subdivided into smaller刻 (kè) intervals using water clocks.

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

khắc

Matches the entering/clipped tone feel in Vietnamese historical borrowings.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: カク / Kun: きざ.む

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

각

Sound Shift Bridge: The historical stop ending in Chinese characters evolved into distinct readings across East Asian languages.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Imagine using a sharp knife (刂) to CARVE a clock face into wood, slicing every fifteen minutes into a distinct QUARTER (刻) of an hour.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

核

hépit, core, nuclearReplaces the knife radical with the tree radical (木), representing the hard core of a fruit.

该

gāishould, ought toReplaces the knife radical with the speech radical (讠), relating to what words dictate or owe.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

核(hé)

核 has the wood radical (木) for fruit pits/cores, whereas 刻 has the knife radical (刂) for carving.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

现在是三点[___]。

Clue: kè

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing 刻 (kè - quarter/carve) with课 (kè - class/lesson) due to the identical pinyin syllable and tone.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 刻, what are its primary meanings related to time and action?

Production: How do you write the character for 'quarter of an hour' (kè) starting from its knife radical?

刻kèquarter (hour), moment, to carve

Speed:

Searching YouTube for native pronunciation videos...

0 / 0