How to Write 岢 (kě) — Meaning “Ke (used in place names)”

Think of a mountain (山) that is 'okay' — the sound 可 (kě) sounds like the English word 'okay.' Picture a mountain with a big checkmark on it to remind you that the character means a place that is acceptable or fine.

Write the mountain radical 山 first: vertical line, then the fold, then the right vertical stroke. Then add 可 below: horizontal line, vertical line, horizontal fold, another horizontal, and finally a vertical hook. A common mistake is making the hook too short or misaligning the two parts vertically.

Visually, 岢 has 可 below, while 屹 has 乞 and 屺 has 己. 屹 means 'towering' and 屺 means 'a hill without plants,' but 岢 is only used in proper place names like 岢岚. Their pronunciations differ: kě, yì, and qǐ.

岢 is almost exclusively used in the place name 岢岚 (Kelan) in Shanxi Province, and occasionally in 岢山 (a mountain). It is not a common character in daily speech, so you will mainly encounter it in geography, maps, or historical texts about that region.

Common words containing 岢 include: 岢岚 (kě lán) — Kelan (a place name); 岢岚县 (kě lán xiàn) — Kelan County; 岢山 (kě shān) — Keshan Mountain.