垦 (kěn): to reclaim (land), to cultivate

垦 (kěn) is a Chinese character meaning “to reclaim (land).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艮 (phonetic) and 土 (semantic). It ranks #2766 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 垦 earth. Its radical form 土 (earth) appears in many related characters such as 在 (zài, to exist), 地 (dì, earth, ground), 场 (chǎng, field, place).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 土 earth9 strokesFrequency #2766艮 phonetic土 semantic

Definitions

  1. to reclaim (land)
  2. to cultivate

Etymology & Origin

垦

pictophoneticearth

Decomposition: ⿱艮土 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:艮phonetic土semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
开垦kāi kěnto clear a wild area for cultivation
垦荒kěn huāngto open up land (for agriculture)
垦丁国家公园kěn dīng guó jiā gōng yuánKenting National Park on the Hengchun Peninsula 恆春半島|恒春半岛[Heng2 chun1 Ban4 dao3], Pingtung county, south Taiwan
垦利区kěn lì qūKenli District in Dongying 東營|东营[Dong1 ying2], Shandong
海涂围垦hǎi tú wéi kěntideland reclamation
垦利kěn lìKenli District in Dongying 東營|东营[Dong1 ying2], Shandong
围垦wéi kěnto reclaim land by diking
垦丁kěn dīngKenting, a national park on the southern tip of Taiwan, popular as a tourist destination (abbr. for 墾丁國家公園|垦丁国家公园[Ken...
垦殖kěn zhíto open up land for cultivation
垦耕kěn gēngto bring under cultivation (scrubland, marshland etc)
屯垦tún kěnto garrison troops to open up land
11
Total compounds
64
As first character
36
As last character
0
As middle character

垦 appears in 11 compound words: 64 as the first character, 36 as the last, and 0 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 垦 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

农nóng
0.5746,954 co-occurrences
荒huāng
0.5372,508 co-occurrences
殖zhí
0.5293,324 co-occurrences
屯tún
0.5021,764 co-occurrences
围wéi
0.4732,754 co-occurrences
开kāi
0.4516,414 co-occurrences
耕gēng
0.433510 co-occurrences
稽jī
0.405234 co-occurrences
局jú
0.4023,156 co-occurrences
区qū
0.3934,542 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

春天到了，农民开始翻垦播种。

chūn tiān dào le , nóng mín kāi shǐ fān kěn bō zhǒng .

Spring has arrived, and farmers have begun tilling the land and sowing seeds.

EttodayApr 2026

人潮涌现!垦丁大街“整条塞爆”现场画面曝 网喊:国旅...

rén cháo chōng xiàn ! kěn dīng dà jiē zhěng tiáo sāi bào xiàn chǎng huà miàn pù wǎng hǎn : guó lǚ . . .

三立新聞網Mar 2026

以国屯垦者袭巴人营地 男惨遭束带勒私处

yǐ guó tún kěn zhě xí bā rén yíng dì nán cǎn zāo shù dài lè sī chǔ

State-run farm workers raid Ba people's camp; man brutally strangled with a belt around his genitals

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Mar 2026

网传亚依淡垦殖区周边再现虎踪 经核实为旧视频

wǎng chuán yà yī dàn kěn zhí qū zhōu biān zài xiàn hǔ zōng jīng hé shí wéi jiù shì pín

Online reports claim tiger sightings have resurfaced near the Ayer Itam Settlement; upon verification, the footage was found to be old.

RfiFeb 2026

以色列加速扩大西岸屯垦 18国批实质并吞

yǐ sè liè jiā sù kuò dà xī àn tún kěn 1 8 guó pī shí zhì bìng tūn

Israel accelerated the expansion of reclamation in the West Bank and approved the substantive annexation of 18 countries

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

在zài地dì场chǎng坏huài坐zuò块kuài堂táng墙qiáng土tǔ坚jiān

Homophones — Characters pronounced kěn

恳kěn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 垦 (kěn) mean in Chinese?
垦 (kěn) primarily means "to reclaim (land)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2766 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 垦 and 根?
垦 (kěn) and 根 (gēn) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 土 vs 木 (same 艮 component).
How many strokes does 垦 have?
垦 is written with 9 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 垦?
The radical associated with 垦 is 土 (earth). This radical appears in many characters related to earth.
What are the components of 垦?
垦 is composed of: 艮 (phonetic), 土 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艮土 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 垦?
Common words with 垦 include: 开垦 (kāi kěn, "to clear a wild area for cultivation"); 垦荒 (kěn huāng, "to open up land (for agriculture)"); 垦丁国家公园 (kěn dīng guó jiā gōng yuán, "Kenting National Park on the Hengchun Peninsula 恆春半島|恒春半岛[Heng2 chun1 Ban4 dao3], Pingtung county, south Taiwan"); 垦利区 (kěn lì qū, "Kenli District in Dongying 東營|东营[Dong1 ying2], Shandong"); 海涂围垦 (hǎi tú wéi kěn, "tideland reclamation"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 垦 (kěn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation kěn: 恳 (earnest). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 垦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 垦 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.