磕

kē
HSK 6
#2,985 most
frequent character
to tap, knock
verb

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

磕 has 石, stone, as the meaning part and 盍 hé as the sound part. It first meant the sound of two stones hitting each other. That grew to tapping or knocking. Read kè, it means to crack something between the teeth.

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Example Sentences

他用石头磕了一下桌子。
tāyòng shítou kē le yīxià zhuōzǐ 。
He tapped the table with a stone.
我可以用这个工具磕碎这些坚果。
wǒ kěyǐ yòng zhègè gōngjù kē suì zhèixiē jiānguǒ 。
I can use this tool to crack these nuts.
她磕了磕门，询问里面是否有人。
tā kē le kē mén ， xúnwèn lǐmiàn shìfǒu yǒurén 。
She knocked on the door to ask if anyone was inside.

Same Characters, Different Readings

磕kè
variant of 嗑[ke4]

Words with similar meanings

敲qiāo
to knock
More commonly used in everyday conversation, '敲' can imply a stronger action compared to '磕', which is more specific to gentle tapping.
击jī
to strike
'击' suggests a more forceful action than '磕', typically used in contexts of hitting or striking.

Homophones

HSK 4
棵kē
"classifier for trees, cabbages, plants etc"
HSK 5
颗kē
"classifier for small spheres, pearls, corn grains, teeth, hearts, satellites etc"
科kē
subject, family, section
柯kē
(literary) branch, stem, stalk

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Public Lists with 磕

HSK 6
All words for the HSK 6 test
Basic Verbs
Core action verbs like 'go,' 'come,' 'eat,' 'see,' commonly encountered in HSK.