階

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See also: 阶
階 U+968E, 階
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-968E
← 隍
 		CJK Unified Ideographs 随 →

Translingual

Han character

階 (Kangxi radical 170, 阜+9, 12 strokes, cangjie input 弓中心心日 (NLPPA), four-corner 71261, composition ⿰阝皆)

Derived characters

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 1357, character 9
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 41755
  • Dae Jaweon: page 1861, character 9
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 6, page 4143, character 4
  • Unihan data for U+968E

Chinese

trad. 階
simp. 阶
alternative forms 堦／阶
瑎

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 階
Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Small seal script Transcribed ancient scripts
Characters in the same phonetic series (皆) (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
皆 *kriːl
偕 *kriːl
階 *kriːl
喈 *kriːl
稭 *kriːl, *kriːd
堦 *kriːl
楷 *kriːl, *kʰriːlʔ
鶛 *kriːl
湝 *kriːl, *ɡriːl
蝔 *kriːl, *ɡriːl
鍇 *kriːl, *kʰriːlʔ
揩 *kʰriːl
諧 *ɡriːl
瑎 *ɡriːl
龤 *ɡriːl

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *kriːl) : semantic 阝 + phonetic 皆 (OC *kriːl).

Pronunciation

Rime
Character 階
Reading # 1/1
Initial (聲) 見 (28)
Final (韻) 皆 (33)
Tone (調) Level (Ø)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) II
Fanqie 古諧切
Baxter keaj
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang 		/kˠɛi/
Pan
Wuyun 		/kᵚæi/
Shao
Rongfen 		/kɐi/
Edwin
Pulleyblank 		/kəɨj/
Li
Rong 		/kɛi/
Wang
Li 		/kɐi/
Bernard
Karlgren 		/kăi/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex 		jiē
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex 		gaai1
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 階
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		jiē
Middle
Chinese 		‹ kɛj ›
Old
Chinese 		/*kˁrij/
English steps, stairs

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. * as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 階
Reading # 1/1
No. 6417
Phonetic
component 		皆
Rime
group 		脂
Rime
subdivision 		1
Corresponding
MC rime 		皆
Old
Chinese 		/*kriːl/

Definitions

階

  1. stair; step
    階梯／阶梯  ―  jiētī  ―  staircase
  2. (figurative) rank; degree; level; seniority; order of precedence
    官階／官阶  ―  guānjiē  ―  rank of an official
    進階中文課／进阶中文课  ―  jìnjiē zhōngwén kè  ―  advanced(-level) course in Chinese
  3. (figurative) phase; stage (serially-ordered division of time, level of completion, etc.)
    階段／阶段  ―  jiēduàn  ―  stage
  4. (music) scale
    五聲音階／五声音阶  ―  wǔshēngyīnjiē  ―  pentatonic scale
  5. (mathematics) order; degree (quantity signifying various concepts in mathematics, chiefly integer-valued)
    二階微分方程／二阶微分方程  ―  èrjiē wēifēnfāngchéng  ―  second-order differential equation
    1. (graph theory) the number of vertices in a graph
  6. a surname

Compounds

Descendants

Sino-Xenic (階):
  • → Japanese: 階(かい) (kai)

References

Japanese

Kanji

階

(grade 3 “Kyōiku” kanji)

  1. storey; story; floor​

Readings

Etymology

Kanji in this term
階
かい
Grade: 3
on’yomi

From Middle Chinese 階 (MC keaj).

Pronunciation

Affix

階(かい) • (kai) 

  1. step; stair; storey
  2. class; rank; level

Counter

階(かい) • (-kai) 

  1. floors, storeys (of a building)
    （私(わたし)の）オフィスは五(ご)階(かい)にあります。
    (Watashi no) ofisu wa go-kai ni arimasu.
    (My) office is on the fifth floor.

Korean

Hanja

階 (eumhun 섬돌 계 (seomdol gye))

  1. Hanja form? of 계 (“steps, stairs”).
  2. Hanja form? of 계 (“rank, degree”).

Vietnamese

Han character

階: Hán Nôm readings: giai

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.
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