闊 (kuò) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

闊

kuò[kuo4]Tone 4

wide, broad, rich

HSK 6

View Simplified FormSwitch to Simplified

阔

Guru Deep Dive

English · wide, broad, rich

Cached lesson

1 / 1

Topology:Full enclosure

Strokes:12

Writing Balance Rule: The outer enclosure '门' must remain upright and balanced, providing a wide open courtyard for the inner components '舌' and '黄' to sit comfortably inside without touching the borders.

Simplification Logic: Simplified from 闊 by streamlining the inner components while maintaining the enclosing gate frame.

1. Meaning

wide, broad, expansive

rich, wealthy, extravagantseparated for a long time

AdjectiveNeutral#size#wealth#emotion

Sample Usage

这间屋子很宽阔。
Zhè jiàn wūzi hěn kuānkuò.
This room is very spacious and wide.
他现在阔气了。
Tā xiànzài kuòqi le.
He is wealthy and extravagant now.

2. Sound

/[kʰuo⁵¹]/Tone: 51

闊

kuòkuo4

`(51)

=kuò

Initial Consonant

Type: Aspirated Velar

Sounds like: k sound as in 'kite'

Aspirated

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

Tongue & Mouth Position: Back of the tongue raised against the soft palate, releasing a strong burst of air while the tip rests behind the lower front teeth.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -o vowel group

Sounds like: -uo rhymes with 'war' or 'woof' without the final consonant

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

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 drops sharply to the bottom, exactly like saying an emphatic 'No!' or giving a firm command in English.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the rounded glide 'uo' with a simple 'o' or missing the strong aspiration puff of air on the initial 'k'.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A sharp, forceful downward karate chop from high in the air to the floor, matching the Tone 4 drop.

3. Writing

Topology: Full enclosure · Strokes: 12 strokes

Simplification Logic: Simplified from 闊 by streamlining the inner components while maintaining the enclosing gate frame.

4. Components

Radical 门 · Enclosure Gate Radical (gate, door, enclosure)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 门 (Provides the semantic frame of a wide open gate or space.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 活 (original sound: kuò)

A great gate (门) opening up wide to reveal a tongue (舌) tasting a field (由) of gold (黄), representing a vast, rich, and spacious domain.

门 Gate frame enclosure
舌 Tongue component
黄 Yellow / gold component

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

3· Phonetic Root: 活 (huó)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally combined the enclosure radical '门' (gate) with a phonetic indicator suggesting breadth or separation. Over time, it came to represent expansive physical space, and later extended to mean wealthy or extravagant due to having ample resources.

Semantic Evolution: From a narrow gate opening into a vast courtyard ('wide') to having abundant space and possessions ('rich').

In classical literature, 'kuò' frequently described long separations between friends, as in '久阔' (long time no see).

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

khoát

The Chinese Tone 4 corresponds roughly to the Vietnamese sắc tone (high rising) or nặng tone in historical derivations, delivered with a sharp drop.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: カク / Kun: ひろ.い

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

확

Sound Shift Bridge: The initial 'k' and vowel rhyme 'uo' show typical historical correspondences with Japanese On'yomi 'kaku'.

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Imagine stepping through a huge **gate** (门) into a **wide**, boundless valley where **yellow** (黄) gold is scattered everywhere, making you instantly **rich** (阔).

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

活

huóalive, livelyUses water (氵) instead of a gate, meaning flowing water keeps things alive.

话

huàwords, speechUses speech radical (讠) for words coming out of the mouth.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

括(kuò)

Uses the hand radical (扌) meaning to enclose or include, whereas 阔 uses the gate radical (门) for wide space.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

這家公司的胸懷非常广[___]。

Clue: kuò

Common Learner Pitfall

Mistaking the outer gate structure for standard left-right characters or confusing it with phonetically similar characters like 话 or 活.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 阔, what are its primary meanings and how does the gate radical hint at its size?

Production: How do you write the character for 'wide/rich' (kuò) starting with the gate enclosure?

闊kuòwide, broad, rich

Speed:

Searching YouTube for native pronunciation videos...

0 / 0