Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

剋

/kʰɤ⁵¹/

to counteract; to work against; to conflict (especially of one's fate with someone else)

HSK 2
radical 刀
9 strokes
K

Etymology graph

inherited
borrowed
derived
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sound component
related

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Origin

From Middle Chinese 刻 (MC khok) (cf. Sun, 2018, p. 518).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

partChinese克 “to be able to”
derivedMiddle Chinese刻
partChinese刂

Meanings

character

to counteract; to work against; to conflict (especially of one's fate with someone else)
to overcome; to subdue; to capture; to defeat; to vanquish; to prevail; to surmount; to overthrow
to restrain; to cut down
to be able to
severe; harsh
to injure; to harm

國語辭典 definitions

約束、克制。例：剋己奉公
限定。例：剋日啟程、剋期完工
勝、對抗。例：五行相生相剋

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 剋 was written 字形演變

Small seal
說文小篆
Shuowen, c. 100 CE
Regular
楷書
since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
Wiktionary: 剋