角
かど · kado · JLPT N5 · noun
gram
📐 kado: a CAr DOdges round the corner
Same kanji 角 also reads tsuno (horn) and kaku (angle) — all pointy things. Kado is the outside corner: of a desk, a street, a pavement. Turn at the kado = turn at the street corner.
角 — pictograph of a horn
角 is a pictograph of an animal's horn, with early oracle-bone forms clearly showing the curved, ridged shape of a horn. From 'horn' it extended to mean corner, angle, and by metaphor a role or part (as in a stage role). The reading jiǎo covers most of these senses.
すみ · sumi · JLPT N3 · noun
corner
📐 角 began as a drawing of a horn, and horns end in a pointed corner
Here 角 is read sumi, an inside corner like the corner of a room. For sound, sumi is close to the start of Sumo: a sumo wrestler waits in his corner before the bout. The same kanji also means horn (つの) and angle (かく).
角 — pictograph of a horn
角 is a pictograph of an animal's horn, with early oracle-bone forms clearly showing the curved, ridged shape of a horn. From 'horn' it extended to mean corner, angle, and by metaphor a role or part (as in a stage role). The reading jiǎo covers most of these senses.
かく · kaku · JLPT N3 · noun
angle
📐 角 started as a drawing of an animal horn, and horns jut out at an angle
The character is an old pictograph of a horn, and it still means horn when read つの. Horns end in sharp points, so the meaning grew to cover angles and corners, as in 三角 (sankaku, triangle: three + angle).
角 — pictograph of a horn
角 is a pictograph of an animal's horn, with early oracle-bone forms clearly showing the curved, ridged shape of a horn. From 'horn' it extended to mean corner, angle, and by metaphor a role or part (as in a stage role). The reading jiǎo covers most of these senses.
つの · tsuno · JLPT N1 · noun
horn
角 — pictograph of a horn
角 is a pictograph of an animal's horn, with early oracle-bone forms clearly showing the curved, ridged shape of a horn. From 'horn' it extended to mean corner, angle, and by metaphor a role or part (as in a stage role). The reading jiǎo covers most of these senses.