剋 emphasizes overcoming resistance, not merely achieving victory.

Semantic contrast:


to win, to prevail, to excel

to overcome, to triumph, to win

 / 剋 — to overcome (pressure, effort, domination)


to be defeated, to lose, to fail, to collapse, to decay, to spoil

to restrain, to control, to regulate

to go, to march, to attack, to conquer

 — to conquer (military / expansionist)

sword, knife, sharp-edged tool

 (knife, blade) — semantic element, indicating force or cutting


 (to overcome, to be able to) — phonetic element and semantic contributor
The structure reinforces the idea of overcoming by force or decisive action, rather than merely succeeding incidentally.

극기 (克己 / 剋己) — self-discipline
극복 (克服) — to overcome (difficulty)
상극 (相剋) — mutual opposition (Five Elements)
극제 (克制) — restraint; self-control

Characters

Words

Vocabulary

to separate, to part, to distinguish, to differ

to benefit, to profit, to be advantageous

to arrive, to reach, to attain

a written document, certificate

to stab, pierce, prick

engrave, carve, cut, harsh, severe

law, rule, regulation, standard, norm

to overcome, to defeat

lively, brisk, vigorous, to oppose, to offend

front, before, earlier, forward

to peel, to strip, to flay, to deprive

to remain, to be left over, surplus, remainder

secondary, vice-, supplemental, auxiliary

to cut, divide, separate, apportion

to start, to begin, to wound, to originate, to create

to draw, to carve, to divide

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Chinese character

Explore 214 Chinese radicals and their derived characters. Sort by radical or stroke count, and view the complete list of official Hanja radicals.

剋

Etymology

Usage in Korean

Additional notes

Words that derived from 剋

Neighboring characters in the dictionary