空間

くうかん · kuukan · JLPT N1 · noun

space

🚀 空 (empty, sky) + 間 (room, gap) = empty room, the airspace between things

Kuu means sky or emptiness; kan means interval or room. Together they name open space, like the sky above a city or the empty area inside a room.

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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