(gài): lid, top, cover, canopy, to cover, to conceal

(gài) is a Chinese character meaning “lid.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1051 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a dish 皿 with a lid 羊. Its radical form (dish) appears in many related characters such as (, benefit), (yán, salt), (pán, tray).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. lid
  2. top
  3. cover
  4. canopy
  5. to cover
  6. to conceal

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA dish 皿 with a lid 羊

Decomposition: ⿱羊皿 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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
verbfù gàito cover6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xī gàiknee
yǎn gàito conceal
gài zicover
gài ěrGaelic
pū gàito spread evenly over
gài cíGates (name)
xī gài gǔkneecap
yǐn qíng gài(car) hood
zhē gàito hide
gài shì tài bǎoGestapo
pū tiān gài dìlit. eclipsing the sky and blanketing the earth (idiom)
tóu gài gǔskull
gài zhāngto affix a seal
píng gàibottle cap
hán gàito cover
100
Total compounds
38
As first character
39
As last character
23
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 38 as the first character, 39 as the last, and 23 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.

0.772100,690 co-occurrences
hán
0.69241,648 co-occurrences
yǎn
0.56810,560 co-occurrences
0.5574,964 co-occurrences
lóng
0.4993,984 co-occurrences
xiè
0.4979,258 co-occurrences
xuě
0.46317 co-occurrences
ěr
0.45837,974 co-occurrences
zhē
0.4572,748 co-occurrences
jiāo
0.452732 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

gàiguāndìnglùnHSK 7+

to judge the accomplishments and faults of a person after their death; to reach a final decision or conclusion

phrase
gàiguānlùndìngHSK 7+

to judge the accomplishments and faults of a person after their death; to reach a final decision or conclusion

phrase
GàishìtàibǎoHSK 5+

Gestapo (Nazi secret police)

gōnggāogàizhǔHSK 5+

one's contributions or feats are so great that one's monarch or superior feels uneasy and insecure

phrase
pītóugàiliǎnHSK 7+

to one's face; directly towards someone

phrase
pūtiāngàidìHSK 6+

to flood in; earth-shattering; to be omnipresent; everywhere

phrase
yùgàimízhāngHSK 7+

to attempt to cover up the truth but the truth becomes more apparent or further exposed

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

gě zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character "盖" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

东吴证券:首次覆东方电气给予买入评级,目标价41.9元-...

dōng wú zhèng quàn : shǒu cì fù gài dōng fāng diàn qì gěi yú mǎi rù píng jí , mù biāo jià 4 1 . 9 yuán . . .

Soochow Securities: For the first time, Dongfang Electric gave a buy rating, with a target price of 41.9 yuan-...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...岁男童疑弄坏舅父iPad 遭衣架打及用杯掟伤头浴血

. . . suì nán tóng yí nòng huài jiù fù i P a d zāo yī jià dǎ jí yòng bēi gài 掟 shāng tóu yù xiě

... A boy suspected of breaking his uncle's iPad was hit by a hanger and thrown a cup lid on his head and covered in blood

東方日報Feb 2026

北区云向预告一周内上载价单 首批会涵不同景观

běi qū yún xiàng yù gào yī zhōu nèi shàng zài jià dān shǒu pī huì hán gài bù tóng jǐng guàn

North District Cloud announced that the price list will be uploaded within a week, and the first batch will cover different landscapes

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

开源证券:首次覆松原安全给予买入评级-FX168

kāi yuán zhèng quàn : shǒu cì fù gài sōng yuán ān quán gěi yú mǎi rù píng jí F X 1 6 8

Open source securities: Covered for the first time to give a buy rating - FX168

InvestingFeb 2026

RBC Capital首次覆Light & Wonder股票,给予跑...

R B C C a p i t a l shǒu cì fù gài L i g h t W o n d e r gǔ piào , gěi yú pǎo . . .

RBC Capital covers Light & Wonder stocks for the first time, giving run...

Tatoeba

母亲把药膏涂在了我膝的伤口上。

Mǔqīn bǎ yàogāo tú zài le wǒ xīgài de shāngkǒu shàng.

Mother applied the medicine to the sore on my knee.

Tatoeba

富士山被雪所覆

Fùshì Shān bèi xuě suǒ fùgài.

Mt. Fuji was covered with snow.

Tatoeba

这个活塞不接触汽缸

Zhège huósāi bù jiēchù qìgāng gài.

The piston does not come into contact with the cylinder cover.

Tatoeba

乔治敦是亚那的首都。

Qiáozhìdūn shì Gàiyànà de shǒudū.

Georgetown is the capital of Guyana.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 盖 (gài) mean in Chinese?
盖 (gài) primarily means "lid." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1051 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 盖 have?
盖 is written with 11 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 盖?
The radical associated with 盖 is 皿 (dish). This radical appears in many characters related to dish.
What are the components of 盖?
盖 is composed of: 羊 (structural), 皿 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱羊皿 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 盖?
Common words with 盖 include: 膝盖 (xī gài, "knee"); 掩盖 (yǎn gài, "to conceal"); 覆盖 (fù gài, "to cover"); 盖子 (gài zi, "cover"); 盖尔 (gài ěr, "Gaelic"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
Is 盖 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 盖 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.