蓋 is more than a lid. It is what rests above, shields below, and, in words, frames understanding.

Related characters:


to cover, to overlay, to overturn, to topple, to repeat, to do again

 — to cover, overturn
罩 — to 罩,罩子 (cover, hood)
盍 — lid (etymological base)
蔽 — to 遮蔽, to obscure
庇 — to shelter, protect

Conceptual contrast:
蓋 — covering, sheltering, enclosing


 — exposure, openness, uncovering
This contrast appears frequently in:
- Classical rhetoric
- Moral metaphors (concealment vs openness)
- Poetic imagery

the top radical form of 艸

 (grass, plants) — suggests something spread or layered over
盍 (phonetic, to cover, lid) — provides both sound and the core idea of covering or enclosing
Originally, 蓋 referred to a covering made of plants or layered material, such as a thatch, mat, or canopy.

개폐 (蓋閉) — opening and closing (of a lid or cover)

Characters

Words

Vocabulary

arrowroot, kudzu

to supervise, to direct, to oversee

to bury, to inter a corpse, to conduct funeral rites

spring onion, scallion, leek, green, verdant

dark, dim, ignorant, foolish

to steam, to cook with rising vapor, to heat, to warm

blue-green, azure, verdant

to store, to accumulate, to amass, to preserve

to cover, lid, shelter, probably

lotus, water lily

to despise, to look down upon

ginseng

name of a place, especially Ulsan (蔚山) in Korea, mugwort / wormwood, to flourish, luxuriant growth

vegetables, greens, edible herbs

to multiply, to flourish, to grow thickly, (literary) luxuriant, lush

dissipated, profligate, wander

used in phonetic transcriptions of foreign names and loanwords, bodhisattva

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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.

蓋

Etymology

Usage in Korean

Words that derived from 蓋

Additional notes

Alternative forms

Neighboring characters in the dictionary