坷 (kē): used in 坷垃[ke1 la1]

坷 (kē) is a Chinese character meaning “used in 坷垃[ke1 la1].” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 土 (semantic) and 可 (phonetic). It ranks #3022 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 坷 earth. Its radical form 土 (earth) appears in many related characters such as 土 (tǔ, earth, soil), 地 (dì, earth, ground), 场 (chǎng, field, place).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 土 earth8 strokesFrequency #3022土 semantic可 phonetic

Definitions

  1. used in 坷垃[ke1 la1]

Etymology & Origin

坷

pictophoneticearth

Decomposition: ⿰土可 (layout: left-right)

Components:土semantic可phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Practice writing 坷 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
坎坷kǎn kě(of a road) bumpy
坎坷不平kǎn kě bù píngpotholed and bumpy road (idiom)
命途坎坷mìng tú kǎn kěto have a tough life
土坷垃tǔ kē lā(dialect) clod of earth
坎坷多舛kǎn kě duō chuǎnfull of trouble and misfortune (usu. referring to someone's life)
坷垃kē lā(dialect) clod (of earth)
6
Total compounds
17
As first character
33
As last character
50
As middle character

坷 appears in 6 compound words: 17 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 50 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 坷 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

坎kǎn
0.7164,092 co-occurrences
岖qū
0.585156 co-occurrences
垃lā
0.543402 co-occurrences
糙cāo
0.45666 co-occurrences
掺chān
0.45530 co-occurrences
艰jiān
0.40642 co-occurrences
崎qí
0.370156 co-occurrences
折zhé
0.361114 co-occurrences
颇pō
0.35330 co-occurrences
粗cū
0.35266 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

命途坎坷mìng tú kǎn kěHSK 7+

to have a tough life; to meet much adversity in one's life

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这座古坷已经有两千多年的历史了。

zhè zuò gǔ kē yǐ jīng yǒu liǎng qiān duō nián de lì shǐ le .

This ancient site has a history of more than two thousand years.

東方日報Mar 2026

营商路坎坷 去年清盘呈请20载最多

yíng shāng lù kǎn kē qù nián qīng pán chéng qǐng 2 0 zài zuì duō

StheadlineMar 2026

F1|情场失意赛场坎坷 罗利斯开季陷低潮 旧爱晒性感照大获好评

F 1 qíng chǎng shī yì sài chǎng kǎn kē luó lì sī kāi jì xiàn dī cháo jiù ài shài xìng gǎn zhào dà huò hǎo píng

F1 | Down on the dating front and struggling on the track: Rolis hits a rough patch to start the season; ex-girlfriend’s sexy photos go viral

Character Family

土 Radical Family — Characters sharing the earth radical

坝bà壁bì场chǎng城chéng地dì堤dī垫diàn堵dǔ堆duī堕duò

Related Characters

土tǔ地dì场chǎng城chéng坐zuò块kuài坏huài境jìng增zēng培péi

Homophones — Characters pronounced kē

苛kē

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 坷 (kē) mean in Chinese?
坷 (kē) primarily means "used in 坷垃[ke1 la1]." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3022 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 坷 and 河?
坷 (kē) and 河 (hé) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 土 vs 氵 (same 可 component).
How many strokes does 坷 have?
坷 is written with 8 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 坷?
The radical associated with 坷 is 土 (earth). This radical appears in many characters related to earth.
What are the components of 坷?
坷 is composed of: 土 (semantic), 可 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰土可 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 坷?
Common words with 坷 include: 坎坷 (kǎn kě, "(of a road) bumpy"); 坎坷不平 (kǎn kě bù píng, "potholed and bumpy road (idiom)"); 命途坎坷 (mìng tú kǎn kě, "to have a tough life"); 土坷垃 (tǔ kē lā, "(dialect) clod of earth"); 坎坷多舛 (kǎn kě duō chuǎn, "full of trouble and misfortune (usu. referring to someone's life)"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 坷 (kē)?
Several characters share the pronunciation kē: 苛 (severe). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 坷 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 坷 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.