音読み: タン
訓読み: なげく・なげかわしい
画数: 13
部首: くちへん（口）
Meaning
Sigh / Lament / Grieve
- Basic forms
- 嘆く — lament; grieve / base form
- 嘆きます — laments; grieves / masu form
- 嘆いた — lamented; grieved / ta form
- 嘆いて — lamenting … / te form
- 嘆かない — do not lament / negative
- 嘆けば — if (one) laments / conditional
- Common expressions
- 不運を嘆く — lament one’s bad luck
- 嘆いても仕方ない — no use lamenting
- 長いため息をついて嘆いた — lamented with a deep sigh
- More
- 嘆いている — is lamenting; is grieving / state
嘆く（なげく） is a godan intransitive verb. It means to express deep sorrow, regret, or frustration — often over something that cannot be changed. Common in written or formal contexts, but also appears in fixed phrases like 嘆いても仕方ない.
- 嘆く — to sigh; to lament
- 嘆かわしい — lamentable; deplorable
- 感嘆 — admiration; wonder
- 嘆願 — earnest petition; plea
- 嘆息 — a deep sigh
- 嘆称 — high praise
A phono-semantic character: the radical 口 points to speech/breath, while the phonetic element supplies the sound タン and the sense of a drawn-out exhale. Together they picture the voice falling in a sigh — hence “to lament” and “to grieve.”