杆 (gān): pole, CL:條|条,根, stick

杆 (gān) is a Chinese character meaning “pole.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 木 (semantic) and 干 (phonetic). It ranks #1983 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 杆 wood. Its radical form 木 (tree) appears in many related characters such as 本 (běn, (bound form) root), 机 (jī, machine, opportunity), 条 (tiáo, strip).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. pole
  2. CL:條|条,根
  3. stick

Etymology & Origin

杆

pictophoneticwood

Decomposition: ⿰木干 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
栏杆nounlán gānrailing
杆菌noungǎn jūnbacillus (any rod-shaped bacteria)
杆子noungān zipole
旗杆nounqí gānflagpole
电线杆noundiàn xiàn gānelectric pole
杠杆noungàng gǎnlever
桅杆nounwéi gānmast
操纵杆nouncāo zòng gǎnjoystick
推杆tuī gānpush rod or tappet (mechanics)
撑杆跳nounchēng gān tiàovariant of 撐竿跳|撑竿跳
标杆biāo gānsurveyor's pole
大肠杆菌noundà cháng gǎn jūnEscherichia coli (E. coli)
腰杆nounyāo gǎn(a person's) back (usu. as sth one keeps straight)
吊杆diào gāna boom (i.e. transverse beam for hanging objects)
笔杆子nounbǐ gǎn zipen
90
Total compounds
4
As first character
53
As last character
42
As middle character

杆 appears in 90 compound words: 4 as the first character, 53 as the last, and 42 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 杆 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

菌jūn
0.6265,003 co-occurrences
栏lán
0.5722,684 co-occurrences
杠gàng
0.566860 co-occurrences
撑chēng
0.529584 co-occurrences
肠cháng
0.498430 co-occurrences
芽yá
0.490596 co-occurrences
摇yáo
0.483562 co-occurrences
牵qiān
0.474682 co-occurrences
嗜shì
0.456252 co-occurrences
吊diào
0.450488 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

撑杆跳高chēnggān tiàogāoHSK 7+

pole vault

noun
大肠杆菌dàcháng gǎnjūnHSK 7+

Escherichia coli

noun
光杆司令guānggǎn sīlìngHSK 7+

commander without any soldiers; leader without a team

noun
肉毒杆菌ròudúgǎnjūnHSK 7+

Clostridium botulinum

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

秋风起,杆叶变黄,铺满了林间小路。

qiū fēng qǐ , gān xié biàn huáng , pù mǎn le lín jiān xiǎo lù .

Autumn winds rise, Leaves turn yellow, Carpeted along the forest path.

風傳媒Feb 2026

开杠杆资产狂翻51倍!740万怎么滚成3.8亿...

kāi gàng gān zī chǎn kuáng fān 5 1 bèi ! 7 4 0 wàn zěn má gǔn chéng 3 . 8 yì . . .

Leveraged assets soared 51 times! How to roll 7.4 million into 380 million...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

幽门杆菌粪便检测 吃成药恐测不准

yōu mén gān jūn fèn biàn jiǎn cè chī chéng yào kǒng cè bù zhǔn

Helicobacter stool test Eating over-the-counter medicine may not be accurate

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

毒驾狂飙撞断电杆酿高雄停电 台电证实波及逾3百户

dú jià kuáng biāo zhuàng duàn diàn gān niàng gāo xióng tíng diàn tái diàn zhèng shí bō jí yú 3 bǎi hù

Drug driving crashed into a power pole and caused a power outage in Kaohsiung Taipower confirmed that it affected more than 300 households

LtnFeb 2026

高雄大寮毒驾冲撞警车 拦腰撞断电杆男女就逮

gāo xióng dà 寮 dú jià chōng zhuàng jǐng chē lán yāo zhuàng duàn diàn gān nán nǚ jiù dǎi

Kaohsiung Daliao's drug driver crashed into a police car and stopped the waist and broke the power pole and arrested the man and woman

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

高雄电线杆公车站牌贴纸 破损严重待改善

gāo xióng diàn xiàn gān gōng chē zhàn pái tiē zhǐ pò sǔn yán chóng dài gǎi shàn

Kaohsiung telephone pole bus stop stickers are seriously damaged and need to be improved

Tatoeba

他的单车撞上了栏杆。

Tā de dānchē zhuàng shàng le lángān.

His bike ran into a guard-rail.

Tatoeba

那是一个很棒的推杆。

Nàshi yī gè hěn bàng de tuīgān.

That was an excellent putt.

Tatoeba

我们的栏杆是铁做的。

Wǒmen de lángān shì tiě zuò de.

Our fence is made of iron.

Tatoeba

很多人跳过栏杆,还丢垃圾。

Hěn duō rén tiào guo lángān, hái diū lājī.

A lot of people climb the railing, and even litter.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 木 (wood) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced gān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 杆 (gān) mean in Chinese?
杆 (gān) primarily means "pole." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1983 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 杆 and 刊?
杆 (gān) and 刊 (kān) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 木 vs 刂 (same 干 component).
How many strokes does 杆 have?
杆 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 杆?
The radical associated with 杆 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 杆?
杆 is composed of: 木 (semantic), 干 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木干 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 杆?
Common words with 杆 include: 栏杆 (lán gān, "railing"); 杆菌 (gǎn jūn, "bacillus (any rod-shaped bacteria)"); 杆子 (gān zi, "pole"); 旗杆 (qí gān, "flagpole"); 电线杆 (diàn xiàn gān, "electric pole"). There are over 90 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 杆 (gān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gān: 赶 (to overtake), 肝 (liver), 竿 (pole), 感 (to feel, to sense), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 杆 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 杆 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 杆 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.