How to Write 氪 (kè) — Meaning “Krypton”

Think of Superman's home planet Krypton — the left side 气 looks like a cloud of alien gas, and the right side 克 sounds like "krypton" and also means "overcome." So imagine overcoming a challenge with a cloud of Krypton gas.

Start with the 气 radical: write the two horizontal strokes first, then the curved hook stroke (which is like a left-falling stroke). For the 克 part on the right, write the top horizontal, then vertical, then two horizontals, then a left-falling stroke, and finally a vertical hook. A common mistake is making the 气 radical too wide or forgetting the hook at the end of 气.

All three share the 气 radical, but the right side is different: 氟 has 弗 (fú, meaning "not"), and 氡 has 冬 (dōng, meaning "winter"). 氪 uses 克, which sounds like its pinyin kè. In meaning, 氟 is fluorine (real element), 氡 is radon, and 氪 is krypton.

You will see 氪 most often in the word 氪金 (kè jīn), which means spending real money on in-game items (microtransactions). This is a very common term in Chinese gaming culture. It also appears in science words like 氪气 (krypton gas) and 氪灯 (krypton lamp), but those are less frequent in daily conversation.

Common words containing 氪 include: 氪金 (kè jīn) — Spending money in a game / Microtransactions; 氪气 (kè qì) — Krypton gas; 氪灯 (kè dēng) — Krypton lamp.