谷

It refers to a natural low area between hills or mountains.

Its form is inspired by the shape of a mountain entrance resembling a triangle or a mouth (口) at the bottom, topped with the symbol 八 (which looks like the number eight), repeated two or three times.

This visually represents water springing out and flowing through a mountain area — essentially a natural water channel or valley.

谷 shares a root with 江 (river), both having a velar initial consonant. The difference is in the final consonant: 江 has a nasal ending, while 谷 has a stop ending.

谷 is commonly used in Korean and Chinese place names to indicate valleys or mountainous regions.

Place names ending with "곡" generally use this character.

Example characters that use this radical:

豁 (meaning “open valley” or “cleared pass”),

谿 (meaning “stream” or “brook”),

豅 (meaning “large and long valley”).

In simplified Chinese, 谷 is also used as the simplified character for 穀 (grain, 곡식 곡).

The character 𧮫 (meaning "to smile" or "upper lip") looks very similar to 谷, and they are often confused when 谷 is used as a phonetic component.

A hint for distinguishing is that characters with 𧮫 as the phonetic usually have initial consonants different from 'ᄀ', unlike those with 谷 as phonetic.