weep, moan, wail
哭 centers on vocal expressions of grief or pain: weeping, moaning, and wailing. It captures the act of crying out loud rather than silent tears.
哭 combines 吅 (two mouths, suggesting loud noise) with 犬 (dog), likely depicting a dog howling or wailing. The modern form retains this visual idea of vocalized distress.
Two mouths 吅 above a dog 犬: imagine a dog howling so loudly it sounds like two mouths wailing at once. That noisy grief is weeping and moaning.
For コク, picture a dog wailing because it accidentally ate a cork: cork -> コク, and the dog's loud moaning fits the kanji's meaning.
wailing; lamentation
wailing; crying loudly
grief; mourning; lamentation
to cry (noisily); to wail; to sob
wailing voice; (loud) crying voice
The Wailing (2016 South Korean horror film)
wailing; lamentation
sobbing
lamentation
wailings of a restless ghost; weeping voice of a departed soul
spine-chilling (like the wailing and weeping of a restless ghost); hair-raising