craft, construction, katakana e radical (no. 48)
工 centers on skilled manual work: crafting, building, and construction. The radical sense is the same visible shape used as a component in other characters.
工 is a pictograph of a carpenter's square or tool, representing craftsmanship and construction.
The shape looks like a simple tool or a beam used in building. Picture a carpenter's square: 工 is craft and construction.
For コウ, imagine a construction worker named Kou building a tall structure: Kou -> コウ, and the shape 工 is the beam he carries.
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construction work
factory; plant; mill; workshop
manufacturing; processing; treatment; machining
artificial; man-made; human work; human skill; artificiality
handicraft
(manufacturing) industry
devising (a way); contriving; inventing; thinking up; figuring out; coming up with; working out
engineering
workshop; studio; atelier
construction; constructing; carrying out; work; formation; workmanship; execution
process; operation; stage of a process; progress of work
industrial arts; craft
work; workmanship; craftsmanship; handiwork
carpenter
commerce and industry
method of construction
faculty of engineering; school of engineering; college of engineering; department of engineering
starting (construction) work
woodworking; woodwork; woodworker
engineering course
engineering; engineering works
science and engineering
factory worker
construction cost
faculty of science and engineering; college of science and engineering; school of science and engineering
ironworking; ironworker
combat engineer; military engineer; combat engineering; military engineering
heavy industry
potter; ceramist; ceramicist
completion of construction work; completion of a building
setting to work
caisson method
artificial respiration
artificial; unnatural
artificial satellite; man-made satellite
Chamber of Commerce and Industry
under construction
spy; agent provocateur; covert operative
machine tool
light industry