考え
かんがえ · kangae · JLPT N3 · noun
thinking
💡 kangae sounds like can guy? — a thought starts by asking if you can
考え is the noun form of the verb 考える (kangaeru, to think): drop the final -ru and you get the thought itself. The kanji 考 means consider, as in 参考 (sankō, reference) and 思考 (shikō, thinking).
考 — old 老 (top) + 丂 phonetic
Originally written like 老 ('old'), 考 depicted an elderly person with long hair leaning on a cane, and the two characters were once interchangeable. Over time 考 specialized to mean 'deceased father' and later 'to examine, test, investigate,' with the bottom 丂 hinting at the sound.