(gàng): coffin-bearing pole (old), thick pole, bar, rod, thick line

(gàng) is a Chinese character meaning “coffin-bearing pole (old).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #2779 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a wooden 木 lever 工; 工 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form (tree) appears in many related characters such as (běn, (bound form) root), (, machine, opportunity), (tiáo, strip).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. coffin-bearing pole (old)
  2. thick pole
  3. bar
  4. rod
  5. thick line

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA wooden 木 lever 工; 工 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰木工 (layout: left-right)

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

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
bǎo xiǎn gàngcar bumper
gàng gǎnlever
gàng língbarbell
gàng zithick bar
dān gàngbar
tái gàngto bicker
qiào gàngcrowbar
qiāo zhú gàngextortion by taking advantage of sb's weakness
gāo dī gànguneven bars (gymnastics)
shuāng gàngparallel bars (gymnastics event)
pán gàng zito carry out gymnastic tricks on horizontal bar
fēi gàng gǎn huàdeleveraging (i.e. paying off part of a leverage loan)
zī jīn gàng gǎn(finance) leverage
xié gàng qīng niányoung person who pursues multiple careers simultaneously
gàng shàngto get into a dispute with
29
Total compounds
45
As first character
38
As last character
17
As middle character

appears in 29 compound words: 45 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 17 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
0.5942,556 co-occurrences
shuāng
0.5103,690 co-occurrences
dān
0.5035,424 co-occurrences
0.4994,734 co-occurrences
líng
0.478348 co-occurrences
xié
0.450756 co-occurrences
xiǎn
0.4451,032 co-occurrences
héng
0.437762 co-occurrences
tái
0.419204 co-occurrences
0.393126 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

秋风起,叶变黄,铺满了林间小路。

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

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

東森新聞Feb 2026

14岁少年健身遭190公斤铃重击 胸口瞬间凹陷

1 4 suì shǎo nián jiàn shēn zāo 1 9 0 gōng jīn gàng líng chóng jī xiōng kǒu shùn jiān āo xiàn

The 14-year-old boy was hit hard by a 190-kilogram barbell and his chest was instantly sunken

中時新聞網Feb 2026

彩券、刮刮乐龟可以换200元?还能领一串卫生纸

cǎi quàn , guā guā lè gàng guī kě yǐ huàn 2 0 0 yuán ? hái néng lǐng yī chuàn wèi shēng zhǐ

Lottery tickets and scratch cards can be exchanged for 200 yuan? You can also get a string of toilet paper

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

龟彩券、刮刮乐不要丢!杰升通信回收领20...

gàng guī cǎi quàn , guā guā lè bù yāo diū ! jié shēng tōng xìn huí shōu lǐng 2 0 . . .

Don't lose the lottery and scratch tickets! Jiesheng Communications Recycling Leader 20...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

公屋阿婆走廊水管玩吊单!住户恐压爆制止遭骂 网民教这样对付

gōng wū ā pó zǒu láng shuǐ guǎn wán diào dān gàng ! zhù hù kǒng yā bào zhì zhǐ zāo mà wǎng mín jiào zhè yàng duì fù

Playing with the horizontal bar in the public housing grandmother's corridor water pipe! Residents are afraid of being scolded for being scolded, and netizens teach them to deal with it in this way

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

倾销争议 天声董事长张水圳曾硬美政府

qīng xiāo zhēng yì tiān shēng dǒng shì cháng zhāng shuǐ 圳 céng yìng gàng měi zhèng fǔ

Dumping controversy Tiansheng Chairman Zhang Shuizhen once slammed the US government

Tatoeba

汤姆被敲竹了。

Tāngmǔ bèi qiāo zhúgàng le.

Tom got ripped off.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced gàng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 杠 (gàng) mean in Chinese?
杠 (gàng) primarily means "coffin-bearing pole (old)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2779 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 杠 and 细?
杠 (gàng) and 细 (xì) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 杠 (thick) vs 细 (thin).
How many strokes does 杠 have?
杠 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 杠?
The radical associated with 杠 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 杠?
杠 is composed of: 木 (structural), 工 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木工 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 杠?
Common words with 杠 include: 保险杠 (bǎo xiǎn gàng, "car bumper"); 杠杆 (gàng gǎn, "lever"); 杠铃 (gàng líng, "barbell"); 杠子 (gàng zi, "thick bar"); 单杠 (dān gàng, "bar"). There are over 29 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 杠 (gàng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gàng: 冈 (ridge), 刚 (hard), 纲 (head rope of a fishing net), 缸 (jar), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 杠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 杠 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.