空き

あき · aki · JLPT N3 · noun

vacancy

🪑 空き aki sounds like 秋 aki, autumn: when the trees go empty

空き is the noun form of 空く (aku, to become empty), and 空 means sky or empty. You will see it on signs like 空き室 (vacant room) and 空き地 (empty lot). Autumn (秋) is also read aki, so the pun ties the sound to bare branches.

空 — cave radical 穴 + 工 (phonetic)
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 穴 (cave, hole) gives the meaning of emptiness or hollow space, while 工 supplies the sound. The earliest sense was 'hole' or 'cavity,' which extended to 'empty,' 'sky,' and 'in vain.' The reading kòng (4th tone) specifically means 'free time' or 'vacancy.'

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