冈 (gāng): ridge, mound

冈 (gāng) is a Chinese character meaning “ridge.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 冂 (structural) and 乂 (structural). It ranks #2015 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, 冈 simplified form of 岡, clouds 网 forming over a mountain 山. Its radical form 冂 (wide) appears in many related characters such as 再 (zài, again), 内 (nèi, inside), 冒 (mào, to emit).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ridge
  2. mound

Etymology & Origin

冈

pictographicSimplified form of 岡, clouds 网 forming over a mountain 山

Decomposition: ⿵冂乂 (layout: surround-from-top)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
梵蒂冈proper-nounfàn dì gāngthe Vatican
俄勒冈州é lè gāng zhōuOregon
俄勒冈proper-nouné lè gāngOregon
福冈proper-nounfú gāngFukuoka (city in Japan, capital of Fukuoka prefecture)
静冈jìng gāngShizuoka (prefecture in Japan)
冈比亚proper-noungāng bǐ yàGambia
冈山proper-noungāng shānOkayama (prefecture in Japan)
山冈nounshān gāngmound
冈底斯山gāng dǐ sī shānMt Gangdisê (6656m) in southwest Tibet, revered by Tibetans as the center of the universe
冈山区gāng shān qūGangshan District in Kaohsiung, Taiwan
冈底斯山脉gāng dǐ sī shān màiGangdisê mountain range in southwest Tibet
武冈市wǔ gāng shìWugang, a county-level city in Shaoyang City 邵陽市|邵阳市, Hunan
黄冈市huáng gāng shìHuanggang, prefecture-level city in Hubei Province 湖北省
井冈山市jǐng gāng shān shìJinggangshan, a county-level city in Ji'an City 吉安市, Jiangxi
冈本proper-noungāng běnOkamoto (Japanese surname and place name)
38
Total compounds
29
As first character
42
As last character
29
As middle character

冈 appears in 38 compound words: 29 as the first character, 42 as the last, and 29 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 冈 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

鹰yīng
0.59210 co-occurrences
黄huáng
0.5113,340 co-occurrences
井jǐng
0.4742,262 co-occurrences
萨sà
0.4711,998 co-occurrences
赖lài
0.45810 co-occurrences
蒂dì
0.4571,924 co-occurrences
勒lè
0.4512,564 co-occurrences
静jìng
0.450878 co-occurrences
俄é
0.4472,174 co-occurrences
凤fèng
0.442653 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

冈仁波齐GāngrénbōqíHSK 7+

Mount Kailash (a mountain in Ngari prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China)

云冈石窟yún gāng shí kūHSK 7+

Yungang Caves at Datong 大同, Shanxi 山西

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个冈字在古汉语中有不同的含义。

zhè gě gāng zì zài gǔ hàn yǔ zhōng yǒu bù tóng de hán yì .

The character "冈" had different meanings in ancient Chinese.

TvbsMar 2026

...山火烧逾30小时!烈焰距民宅200m 静冈山崩79人受困

. . . shān huǒ shāo yú 3 0 xiǎo shí ! liè yàn jù mín zhái 2 0 0 m jìng gāng shān bēng 7 9 rén shòu kùn

...Wildfire rages for over 30 hours! Flames just 200 meters from homes; 79 people trapped in Shizuoka landslide

TvbsMar 2026

日本静冈大规模山崩!70米高土石吞没县道 80人...

rì běn jìng gāng dà guī mó shān bēng ! 7 0 mǐ gāo tǔ shí tūn méi xiàn dào 8 0 rén . . .

Massive landslide in Shizuoka, Japan! A 70-meter-high avalanche of earth and rock buries a prefectural road; 80 people...

LtnFeb 2026

行人闯富冈-杨梅间轨道 遭自强号撞上命危送医

háng rén chuǎng fù gāng yáng méi jiān guǐ dào zāo zì qiáng hào zhuàng shàng mìng wēi sòng yī

Pedestrians broke into the Fugang-Yangmei track and were hit by the Ziqiang and sent to the hospital

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

圆梦!王贞治赠福冈软银鹰外套 赖清德兴奋喊:把我签下来?

yuán mèng ! wáng zhēn zhì zèng fú gāng ruǎn yín yīng wài tào lài qīng dé xīng fèn hǎn : bǎ wǒ qiān xià lái ?

Dream come true! Wang Zhenzhi gave Fukuoka SoftBank Eagle jacket Lai Qingde shouted excitedly: Sign me down?

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

王贞治赠福冈软银鹰外套 赖总统笑:是不是要把我签下来...

wáng zhēn zhì zèng fú gāng ruǎn yín yīng wài tào lài zǒng tǒng xiào : shì bù shì yāo bǎ wǒ qiān xià lái . . .

Wang Sadaharu gave Fukuoka SoftBank Eagle jacket President Lai laughed: Are you going to sign me off?

Tatoeba

有一个人住在福冈,其他人住在新泻。

Yǒu yī gè rén zhù zài Fúgāng, qítā rén zhù zài Xīnxiè.

One lives in Fukuoka, and the others live in Niigata.

Tatoeba

我十年前参观了福冈。

Wǒ shí nián qián cānguān le Fúgāng.

I visited Fukuoka ten years ago.

Tatoeba

她不论党派把票投给了西冈先生。

Tā bù lùn dǎngpài bǎ piào tóu gěi le Xīgāng xiānsheng.

She voted for Mr Nishioka irrespective of party lines.

Tatoeba

这里的周围都是山冈。

Zhèlǐ de zhōuwéi dōu shì shāngāng.

This place is surrounded by hills.

Character Family

冂 Radical Family — Characters sharing the wide radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced gāng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 冈 (gāng) mean in Chinese?
冈 (gāng) primarily means "ridge." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2015 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 冈 have?
冈 is written with 4 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 冈?
The radical associated with 冈 is 冂 (wide). This radical appears in many characters related to wide.
What are the components of 冈?
冈 is composed of: 冂 (structural), 乂 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿵冂乂 with a surround-from-top layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 冈?
Common words with 冈 include: 梵蒂冈 (fàn dì gāng, "the Vatican"); 俄勒冈州 (é lè gāng zhōu, "Oregon"); 俄勒冈 (é lè gāng, "Oregon"); 福冈 (fú gāng, "Fukuoka (city in Japan, capital of Fukuoka prefecture)"); 静冈 (jìng gāng, "Shizuoka (prefecture in Japan)"). There are over 38 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 冈 (gāng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gāng: 刚 (hard), 港 (Hong Kong (abbr. for 香港)), 钢 (steel), 岗 ((bound form) hillock), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 冈 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 冈 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 冈 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.