Chinese Character Wiki
考

kǎo

examine

Original meaning: 

old father

Depicts an old man (耂) with a cane (丂). Originally the same character as 老. Based on the original meaning "old father". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components
耂 iconic component

耂  Iconic component

lǎo

  

old

耂 is a component form of 老.

丂 sound,iconic component

丂  Sound Iconic component

kǎo

  

axe handle

Depicts a cane.

Evolution

考 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
考 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
考 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
考 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
考 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

考  

kǎo

examine, test; investigate; to check; to verify; to test; to examine; to take an exam; to take an entrance exam for; deceased father

考 (攷) 

kǎo

to beat; to hit; variant of 考[kǎo]; to inspect

Most common words with 考
Freq.
Word
Meaning

考虑

to think over

考试

exam

考

to check

思考

to reflect on

考验

to test

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

拷

Sound component in 5 characters (1 verified)

烤 拷 銬 铐 栲

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*k-r̥ˤuʔ

khawX

kǎo

old; deceased father


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 66.0740% of movies

566th most common character in movies

495th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

6

Unicode

U+8003

Shuowen

“考，老也。从老省，丂聲。”


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