可 — Chinese character
可
kě
may, can, -able; possibly
- Pinyin
- kě
- Radical
- 30 ⼝ (Mouth)
- Strokes
- 5
- Components
- 丁 口
- Formation
- pictophonetic — vigorous; meaning component 丁; sound component 口
- Japanese
- 可 as a kanji
Common words with 可
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 可以 | kě yǐ | can; may |
| 可能 | kě néng | might (happen); possible |
| 可是 | kě shì | but; however; (used for emphasis) indeed |
| 不可 | bù kě | cannot; should not; must not |
| 可怕 | kě pà | awful; dreadful |
| 可爱 (可愛) | kě ài | adorable; cute |
| 可见 (可見) | kě jiàn | it can clearly be seen (that this is the case); it is (thus) clear |
| 可惜 | kě xī | it is a pity; what a pity |
| 可怜 (可憐) | kě lián | pitiful; pathetic |
| 许可 (許可) | xǔ kě | to allow; to permit |
| 认可 (認可) | rèn kě | to approve; approval |
| 可靠 | kě kào | reliable |
English words written with 可
可 in the Chinese classics
Occurrences: Tao Te Ching 33 · Analects 156 · Art of War 92 · I Ching 12 · Mencius 257 · Zhuangzi 349 · Great Learning 8 · Doctrine of the Mean 26
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 1
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 3
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 9
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 13
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 14
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 15
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 20
- Tao Te Ching Chapter 25
Data: Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Retrieved 2026-10-22.