口

kǒu

mouth; opening; entrance; classifier for people

Meaning

  • Anatomy and Speech: The mouth; often used as a synecdoche for speech, the voice, or specific utterances.
  • Apertures and Geography: Any opening or point of transition, including entrances, gates, portals, and geographic bottlenecks (e.g., mountain passes, river mouths, or cave entrances).
  • Administrative/Demographic: A classifier used in census, taxation, or logistics to denote an individual person ("a mouth to feed").

Grammar and usage

  • Noun: As listed above.
  • Measure Word: Used for items relating to the mouth, such as sips of liquid, breaths, or specific phrases.

Translator notes

Because 口 is a common radical in many other characters, the translator should verify that a standalone instance of the glyph is not a scribal error or shorthand corruption of a more complex character, particularly when the context suggests a more specific object or action.

Decontextualized translator aid. This page describes plausible lexical range; it does not choose what the glyph means in a particular passage.