The kanji 項 primarily signifies "neck," "item," or "clause." It often refers to a specific part, aspect, or section within a larger context. It can describe a part of the body, a component of a list, or an article within an agreement. The core concept is something that is a distinct, definable part of a whole.

・On-yomi (音読み): こう (kō) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): うなじ (unaji) - neck

⚫︎項目 (こうもく) Translation: item, entry, category ⚫︎事項 (じこう) Translation: matter, item, a point ⚫︎首項 (しゅこう) Translation: neck (formal, literary)

The kanji 項 is a phono-semantic compound (形声文字, keisei moji). The semantic component (meaning) is the radical 頁 (頁部, おおがい), which originally depicted a human head and represents "head" or "neck." The phonetic component (sound) is 工 (kō), which contributes to the sound of the character. Therefore, it originally depicted the "neck" and later expanded to encompass other meanings like "item" and "clause" to distinguish items in a list.