校 [교] – 학교 교

As you know plenty of Korean words have a Chinese root and often these words have Hanja, Chinese characters, associated with them. One such character is the Hanja 校, pronounced as [교], which is considered a basic character most Koreans would recognize.

As mentioned the character 校 [교] considered one of the basic hanja characters. Therefore, Koreans are typically expected to be able to read and understand this Hanja. The hanja 校 [교] means ‘school’ and thus most of the words that use this character will be related to school and education in general. As a beginner, you most likely learned a few words that incorporates this hanja such as 학교 (school), 대학교 (university) and 교장 (principal).

Perhaps you might not be aware of it, but Koreans never completely abandoned the use of Hanja. The use of Hanja nowadays falls in three categories: explanatory, shorthand and branding. The character 校 [교], as most Koreans know it, is one that is often used in the latter case often appearing the names for schools.

校 [교] Vocabulary

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t focus on the character when learning Korean vocabulary through Hanja. The characters are a guide to help you better understand a differentiate between Korean words. The true meaning of many Korean words is hidden in the Hanja it uses. Please do not waste time memorizing the individual characters (unless for academic pursuits) or their stroke order (unless for calligraphy). Besides, sooner or later you will memorize the frequently used Hanja automatically.

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The character ~ indicates the following part is a pure Korean word and thus has no Hanja counterpart.

We give the verb/adjective meaning of nouns in brackets ‘( )’. As you know Sino-Korean nouns (한자어) can be used as verbs/adjectives with 하다.

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