掛
Mnemonic
With your hand, you help a ballerina climb a steep hill. At the summit, she leaps but gets her tutu snagged on a tree branch and starts to hang there, dangling elegantly. She keeps her perfect pose, turning the whole hang into a stunning mid-air performance.
Additional thoughts
Picture the ballerina's tutu caught on a gnarled branch at the hilltop, her body perfectly poised mid-air. Your hand reached out but couldn't catch her—now she just hangs there gracefully, legs extended, like a living ornament over the hillside.Quick recall
A hand helps a ballerina up a hill, where her tutu snags a branch and she starts to hang gracefully mid-air.Details
The keyword for 掛 is hang. This kanji conveys the idea of suspending, hooking, or draping something so that it rests upon a support rather than standing on its own. It extends beyond the literal sense of hanging an object on a wall or hook to include figurative meanings such as imposing a burden on someone, multiplying numbers, or being in the process of doing something. It often appears in compound expressions related to things that are suspended, applied, or set in motion.
- On'yomi
- かい、けい
- Kun'yomi
- か.ける、-か.ける、か.け、-か.け、-が.け、か.かる、-か.かる、-が.かる、か.かり、-が.かり、かかり、-がかり