(): (bound form) embarrassing, awkward

() is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) embarrassing.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2587 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, lame. Its radical form (lame) appears in many related characters such as (jiù, (after a suppositional clause) in that case), (yóu, outstanding), (gān, used in 尷尬|尴尬).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) embarrassing
  2. awkward

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticlame

Decomposition: ⿺尢介 (layout: surround-from-lower-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adjectivegān gàawkward6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
gà yì(Tw) to like
gà diàn(Tw) (Internet slang) (loanword) goddamn
gà wǔ(slang) to battle each other in street dancing (derived from Taiwanese 較, which sounds similar to Mandarin 尬[ga4])
gà liáo(slang) awkward conversation
5
Total compounds
80
As first character
20
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 5 compound words: 80 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

gān
0.8906,292 co-occurrences
jiǒng
0.42366 co-occurrences
xiū
0.413162 co-occurrences
fēn
0.410192 co-occurrences
gǎn
0.3941,482 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.364360 co-occurrences
chǐ
0.35936 co-occurrences
kuì
0.35142 co-occurrences
hěn
0.348880 co-occurrences
jìng
0.337744 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le gà zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the word "awkward" in the dictionary.

LtnMar 2026

...嘲讽!来宾笑问“是贵台记者?”日女主播尴反应曝

. . . cháo fěng ! lái bīn xiào wèn shì guì tái jì zhě ? rì nǚ zhǔ bō gān gà fǎn yīng pù

...Sarcasm! A guest jokingly asked, "Is that one of your station's reporters?" The Japanese female anchor's awkward reaction was revealed

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Mar 2026

盘中速报 - 欧买(3687)急拉3.92%报68.8元,...

pán zhōng sù bào ōu mǎi gà ( 3 6 8 7 ) jí lā 3 . 9 2 bào 6 8 . 8 yuán , . . .

Intraday Update - Oumaga (3687) surges 3.92% to HK$68.8,...

LtnMar 2026

...会川普引珍珠港事件开玩笑 高市早苗满脸尴

. . . huì chuān pǔ yǐn zhēn zhū gǎng shì jiàn kāi wán xiào gāo shì zǎo miáo mǎn liǎn gān gà

...When Trump joked about the Pearl Harbor attack, Asami looked extremely awkward

EttodayFeb 2026

...!BMW跑车卡路中 成“最抢眼路障”超尴

. . . ! B M W pǎo chē kǎ lù zhōng chéng zuì qiǎng yǎn lù zhàng chāo gān gà

...! BMW sports car stuck in the road became the "most eye-catching roadblock" super embarrassing

百度新闻Feb 2026

印度AI峰会现尴一幕:在总理莫迪出席的场合,Op..

yìn dù A I fēng huì xiàn gān gà yī mù : zài zǒng lǐ mò dí chū xí de chǎng gě , O p . .

An embarrassing scene at the India AI Summit: On the occasion attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Op.

Tatoeba

他的话让我很尴

Tā dehuà ràng wǒ hěn gāngà.

His words embarrassed me.

Tatoeba

观众面前唱歌让我们大家都感到尴

Guānzhòng miànqián chànggē ràng wǒmen dàjiā dōu gǎndào gāngà.

We all felt embarrassed to sing a song in public.

Tatoeba

这件事弄得大家都比较尴

Zhè jiàn shì nòng de dàjiā dōu bǐjiào gāngà.

The incident made everyone feel more embarrassed.

Tatoeba

我认为这很令人尴

Wǒ rènwéi zhè hěn lìngrén gāngà.

I thought that was embarrassing.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the lame radical

Related Characters

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 尬 (gà) mean in Chinese?
尬 (gà) primarily means "(bound form) embarrassing." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2587 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 尬 and 界?
尬 (gà) and 界 (jiè) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 尢 vs 田 (same 介 component).
How many strokes does 尬 have?
尬 is written with 7 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 尬?
The radical associated with 尬 is 尢 (lame). This radical appears in many characters related to lame.
What are the components of 尬?
尬 is composed of: 尢 (semantic), 介 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿺尢介 with a surround-from-lower-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 尬?
Common words with 尬 include: 尴尬 (gān gà, "awkward"); 尬意 (gà yì, "(Tw) to like"); 尬电 (gà diàn, "(Tw) (Internet slang) (loanword) goddamn"); 尬舞 (gà wǔ, "(slang) to battle each other in street dancing (derived from Taiwanese 較, which sounds similar to Mandarin 尬[ga4])"); 尬聊 (gà liáo, "(slang) awkward conversation"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
Is 尬 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 尬 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.