Kanji 曲

音読おんよみ: キョク

訓読くんよみ:がる・まげる

画数かくすう: 6

部首ぶしゅ: ひらび(曰)

Meaning

Bend / Curve / Music / Melody

Conjugation
Tap for 曲げる (bend; trans.) Tap for 曲がる (bend; intrans.)
  • 名曲めいきょく — famous song
  • 作曲さっきょく — composition
  • がる — to bend / to turn
  • げる — to bend (something)
  • 曲線きょくせん — curve
  • 曲名きょくめい — song title
  • 湾曲わんきょく — curvature / bending

The kanji likely depicted bent wood or bamboo, evoking the idea of curving or bending. By extension it came to mean a “musical piece,” whose melody bends and flows, and broadly anything not straight.

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