Hangul Syllable Gok

곸 is one Korean syllable, not a whole word. It combines ㄱ (starting consonant), ㅗ (vowel), and ㅋ (ending consonant). Unicode's decomposed form writes those three slots as ᄀ + ᅩ + ᆿ; these are separate Hangul letters used to encode the same syllable. In a Korean word, surrounding syllables supply the meaning.

Hangul was designed to write Korean speech with letters assembled into syllable blocks. The title Hunminjeongeum appears in a record dated 1443; the explanatory book bearing that title was published in 1446.

The writing system had several Korean names: 정음, 언문, and 반절 were earlier ones; after Korea's Gabo Reform of 1894, it was commonly called 국문 or 국서. Records use 한글 from the early 1910s; the name spread widely after the holiday celebrating the script was renamed 한글날 in 1928 from 가갸날.

How do I type 곸?

Use a Korean IME and enter ㄱ, ㅗ, then ㅋ. An IME, or Korean input software, joins them into one syllable block as you type. On the standard South Korean two-set layout, the keys are r, h, z.

If the letters stay separate, switch your input method to Korean. Typing gok with a Latin keyboard layout is a different input sequence.

Why does 곸 look different?

Fonts can change its outline; a square means the glyph is missing. The same text character can have different proportions across fonts.

Unicode 18.0.0 describes Hangul block placement, shape, and size as dependent on font design. Compare 곡: both start with ㄱ + ㅗ, but 곡 ends in ㄱ and 곸 ends in ㅋ. That final letter distinguishes them.