校 Meaning, Reading, and Vocabulary｜Onyomi コウ (School)
The kanji 校 primarily means 'school' or 'a place of learning' and is an essential basic kanji.
It only has one onyomi, 'コウ' (kou), and no commonly used kunyomi, making it very easy to memorize.
It is included in highly frequent everyday words such as 学校 (school) and 高校 (high school).
Kanji at a glance
Core meaning / core image
校 primarily means 'school', a place where students gather to study. It is also used to mean 'proofread' or 'correct', referring to fixing mistakes in texts or books.
Kanji structure breakdown
Mnemonic story
A building made of wood (木) where many people come and go (交) to socialize and learn—that is a school (校).
On'yomi and kun'yomi
On reading
Commonly used words
Example sentences
Mini quiz
Which of the following is the correct reading for '中学校'?
One-line summary
校 (school) is primarily read as 'コウ' (kou) and is an essential basic kanji used in school-related vocabulary.
FAQ
Does 校 have a kunyomi?
Yes, based on the Joyo Kanji list, there is no official kunyomi for 校. Therefore, it is very convenient because you only need to memorize the single onyomi 'コウ' (kou) to read most words containing this kanji.
Why is 学校 read as 'がっこう' (gakkou) instead of 'がくこう' (gakukou)?
In Japanese, sound changes (euphony) often occur to make pronunciation smoother and easier. When a 'k' sound like 'こう' (kou) follows 'がく' (gaku), it is difficult to pronounce. Therefore, the middle 'く' (ku) generally changes to the small 'っ' (sokuon), making it 'がっこう' (gakkou).
