Hangul Syllable Kaelg

It is a Hangul syllable block, not a word by itself.

The block combines initial ㅋ, vowel ㅐ, and final ㄺ. The surrounding Korean word supplies its meaning. Unicode’s romanized name label “kaelg” describes the combination; it is not a Korean word.

Hangul was designed to represent Korean speech more directly than Chinese-character writing allowed. Its earliest recorded notice dates to 1443; the explanatory guide Hunminjeongeum (“Correct Sounds for the Instruction of the People”) appeared in 1446. Before Hangul, Korean writing used Chinese-character systems such as idu, gugyeol, and hyangchal. They address the same writing problem, but are not glyph ancestors of 캙. Hangul later coexisted with hanja—Chinese characters used in Korean writing—and spread through vernacular writing, including court women’s records and literature, before becoming the standard way modern Korean is written.

How do I type 캙?

Enter the jamo in order with a Korean input method.

A Korean input method (IME) combines the compatibility jamo ㅋ, ㅐ, ㄹ, then ㄱ into this block; ㄹ followed by ㄱ forms final ㄺ.

Unicode also represents the same syllable as the decomposed sequence 캙. Some text paths show those jamo instead of one square block. NFC normalization recomposes the block when supported.

Is 캙 a real Korean character?

Yes as a Hangul block; that does not make it a word.

Hangul encodes regular initial-vowel-final combinations, but a valid block need not be an everyday word by itself. As of 2026, exact-symbol checks found reference and decomposition records but no dictionary headword or documented standalone convention for 캙. Use it in Korean text only where the spelling requires it.