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

杠 (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 木 (structural) and 工 (structural). It ranks #2779 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 杠 a wooden 木 lever 工; 工 also provides the pronunciation. 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. coffin-bearing pole (old)
  2. thick pole
  3. bar
  4. rod
  5. thick line

Etymology & Origin

杠

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
保险杠nounbǎo xiǎn gàngcar bumper
杠杆noungàng gǎnlever
杠铃noungàng língbarbell
杠子noungàng zithick bar
单杠dān gàngbar
抬杠verbtái gàngto bicker
撬杠nounqiào gàngcrowbar
敲竹杠verbqiāo zhú gàngextortion by taking advantage of sb's weakness
高低杠noungāo dī gànguneven bars (gymnastics)
双杠shuāng gàngparallel bars (gymnastics event)
盘杠子pán gàng zito carry out gymnastic tricks on horizontal bar
非杠杆化fēi gàng gǎn huàdeleveraging (i.e. paying off part of a leverage loan)
资金杠杆zī jīn gàng gǎn(finance) leverage
斜杠青年xié gàng qīng niányoung person who pursues multiple careers simultaneously
杠上gàng shàngto get into a dispute with
29
Total compounds
45
As first character
38
As last character
17
As middle character

杠 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 杠 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

龟guī
0.67215 co-occurrences
刮guā
0.63215 co-occurrences
杆gān
0.566860 co-occurrences
斜xié
0.511260 co-occurrences
双shuāng
0.5031,230 co-occurrences
单dān
0.4961,808 co-occurrences
低dī
0.4921,578 co-occurrences
铃líng
0.471116 co-occurrences
券quàn
0.46413 co-occurrences
彩cǎi
0.44811 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

秋风起,杠叶变黄,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公斤杠铃重击 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、刮刮乐杠龟可以换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

杠龟彩券、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杠!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杠美政府

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

汤姆被敲竹杠了。

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: 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 杠 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 杠 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 杠 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.