The kanji 坑 primarily refers to a pit, a hole, or a mine. It suggests a depression in the ground, often created for digging, mining, or entrapment. It implies a sense of depth and excavation.

・On-yomi (音読み): こう (kō) ・Kun-yomi (訓読み): None, or the kun'yomi is rarely used.

⚫︎ 炭坑 Translation: Coal mine ⚫︎ 坑道 Translation: Mine tunnel, adit ⚫︎ 落坑 Translation: pitfall

The kanji 坑 is a 形声文字 (keisei moji), a phonetic-semantic compound. The left side is the radical of 土 (tsuchi), meaning "earth" or "ground", indicating the meaning. The right side is 亢 (kō), which is used phonetically to indicate the sound of the kanji. It suggests an area dug into the earth.