Refers to small stones or gravel, often used in geological or construction contexts. Can also appear in literary descriptions of pebbles.
I picked up colorful small stones at the riverbank.
This stratum contains many rounded gravel stones.
pebbles; small stones
boulder
pellet; pebble; small rock
chopping tool; chopper
Standard kanji form for 'small stone' or 'gravel'.
Kana spelling is sometimes used when the kanji is considered difficult or in informal writing.
The kanji 礫 is a phono-semantic compound: the stone radical 石 combined with the phonetic component 樂 (simplified to 楽 in modern Japanese). The reading れき is the on'yomi. The word is primarily used in technical or literary contexts.