IDENTITY
看kànto look; to watch; to read
HSK 1Top 28
CORE MEANING
to look; to watch; to read
- Part of speech
- verb
- Register
- neutral
Senses
- 1.to look; to watchHSK1
- 2.to readHSK1
FORM & BREAKDOWN
- Radical
- 目eye radical (mù)
- strokes
- 9
- Structure
- top-bottom compound
- IDS sequence
- ⿱龵目
- hand element; gives the sound kàn (historical)
- eye
USAGE
Common words
看见kànjiànto see
看书kàn shūto read
好看hǎokàngood-looking
Graded examples
你看，那是什么？Nǐ kàn, nà shì shénme?HSK1
Look, what is that?
RELATIONS
Lookalike — don’t mix up
- 着
- 见
POEM LINES WITH THIS CHARACTER
LEARNING
Memory aid
A hand (龵) shading the eye (目) — looking far.
- HSK version
- 3.0
- Frequency rank
- #28
- Memory aid
- memory-aid
TRUST & SOURCES
- Reviewed by
- AI-assisted editorial review
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-14
Sources
- CC-CEDICT 2026-01-01
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