空

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

空 (radical 116 穴+3, 8 strokes, cangjie input 十金一 (JCM), four-corner 3010₁, composition ⿱穴工)

1. sky, empty, hollow, bare, void, deserted
2. (Buddhism) sunyata; emptiness, vacuity, awareness, openness, thusness
3. (Japanese Buddhism) "void": One of the 五大 (godai; lit. "great five); also known as 天 (そら, sora) and is of particular importance as the highest of the five elements. It also represents those things that are beyond one's everyday experiences, particularly those things composed of pure energy.
   1. (Bodily) represents one's spirit, thought, and creative energy. It represents one's ability to think and to communicate, as well one's creativity. It can also be associated with power, creativity, spontaneity, and inventiveness.
   2. (Martial arts) a philosophy; when exercised, the power of the Void allows one to connect to the quintessential creative energy of the world. A martial arts practitioner, who is properly attuned into the 'Void', have greater spatial awareness of their surroundings, the presences of others, and to act without thinking and without using their physical senses, via this mindstate of inner peace.

References

• KangXi: page 863, character 1
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 25415
• Dae Jaweon: page 1289, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 4, page 2719, character 8
• Unihan data for U+7A7A

---

Cantonese

Hanzi

空 (Jyutping hung1, Yale hung1)

---

Japanese

Kanji

空

(grade 1 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. sky
2. empty

Readings

• Goon: くう (kū)
• Kan’on: こう (kō) (non-Jōyō reading)
• Kun: そら (sora), から (kara), あく (aku), うろ (uro), すく (suku), むな (muna), うつ (utsu), うつぼ (utsubo), うつお (utsuo)

Compounds

• 青空 (​aozora)
• 青空市場 (​aozora ichiba)
• 冬空 (​fuyuzora)
• 空っぽ (​karappo)
• 空手 (​karate)
• 空オケ (​karaoke)
• 空気 (​kūki)
• 空間 (​kūkan)
• 空港 (​kūkō)
• 空中 (​kūchū)
• 空輸 (​kūyu)
• 空洞 (​kūdō)

• 空腹 (​kūfuku)
• 空白 (​kūhaku)
• 空席 (​kūseki)
• 真空 (​shinkū)
• 架空 (​kakū)
• 虚空 (​kokū)
• 航空 (​kōkū)
• 航空便 (​kōkūbin)
• 空き缶 (​akikan)
• 空き瓶 (​akibin)
• 空き巣狙い (​akisunerai)
• 空しい (​munashii)

Etymology 1

Noun

空 (hiragana そら, romaji sora)

1. the sky

Synonyms

• (the sky): 天 (てん, ​ten)

Related terms

• 空 (そら)で (sorade)

Etymology 2

Noun

空 (hiragana から, romaji kara)

1. empty

   空箱

2. ineffectual

   空振り

3. false

   空元気

Derived terms

• カラオケ (​karaoke)

Etymology 3

Noun

空 (hiragana くう, romaji kū)

1. empty air
2. shunya
3. meaninglessness

Etymology 4

Noun

空 (hiragana うろ, romaji uro)

1. cavity, hole

Etymology 5

/utuho/: utupo → utuɸo → utuwo → utuo. See also 空 (utsubo).

Noun

空 (hiragana うつお, historical hiragana うつほ, romaji utsuo)

1. Alternative form of うろ.

Etymology 6

Similar etymology to 空 (utsuo). As /h/ gradually changed from [p] → [ɸ] → [w] → [Ø], the phoneme was voiced to [b] in order to maintain it.

Noun

空 (hiragana うつぼ, romaji utsubo)

1. Alternative form of うろ.

---

Korean

Hanja

空 (gong)
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): [[공]] (revised: gong, McCune-Reischauer: kong, Yale: kong)

• Name (hangeul): 빌 (revised: bil)

---

Mandarin

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Hanzi

空 (Pinyin kōng (kong1), kǒng (kong3), kòng (kong4), Wade-Giles k'ung¹, k'ung³, k'ung⁴)

Compounds

• 空靈 (kōnglíng, simplified 空灵)

Noun

空 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin kōng)

1. spare time

Compounds

• 有空 (yǒukōng)

Adjective

空 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin kōng)

1. empty

Compounds

• 真空 (zhēnkōng)

---

Vietnamese

Han character

空 (không, khỏng, cung, khung)