糕 (gāo): cake

糕 (gāo) is a Chinese character meaning “cake.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 米 (semantic) and 羔 (phonetic). It ranks #2336 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 糕 rice. Its radical form 米 (rice) appears in many related characters such as 米 (mǐ, uncooked rice), 类 (lèi, kind), 精 (jīng, essence).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. cake

Etymology & Origin

糕

pictophoneticrice

Decomposition: ⿰米羔 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 糕

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
糟糕adjectivezāo gāotoo bad5
蛋糕noundàn gāocake3
雪糕nounxuě gāoice cream bar5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
糕点noungāo diǎncakes
糕饼noungāo bǐngcakes
年糕nounnián gāonian gao, New Year cake, typically a sweet, steamed cake made with glutinous rice flour
炸糕zhá gāofried glutinous rice dough cake
冰糕nounbīng gāoice-cream
马拉糕nounmǎ lā gāoCantonese sponge cake also known as mara cake
起司蛋糕nounqǐ sī dàn gāocheesecake
起士蛋糕nounqǐ shì dàn gāocheesecake
小松糕xiǎo sōng gāomuffin
发糕nounfā gāofa gao, a type of steamed sponge cake, usu. sweetened, commonly consumed at Chinese New Year
造型蛋糕zào xíng dàn gāocustom-designed cake (e.g. cake shaped like a guitar, camera or cartoon character)
重油蛋糕zhòng yóu dàn gāopound cake
黑森林蛋糕nounhēi sēn lín dàn gāoBlack Forest cake
年轮蛋糕nounnián lún dàn gāobaumkuchen (cake)
云片糕nounyún piàn gāoa kind of cake
39
Total compounds
5
As first character
87
As last character
8
As middle character

糕 appears in 39 compound words: 5 as the first character, 87 as the last, and 8 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 糕 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

糟zāo
0.7898,820 co-occurrences
蛋dàn
0.71110,019 co-occurrences
炒chǎo
0.486398 co-occurrences
雪xuě
0.4731,820 co-occurrences
饼bǐng
0.435168 co-occurrences
烘hōng
0.431114 co-occurrences
焙bèi
0.42466 co-occurrences
酪lào
0.422110 co-occurrences
店diàn
0.4191,598 co-occurrences
馅xiàn
0.40636 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

海绵蛋糕hǎimián dàngāoHSK 7+

spongecake

noun
起司蛋糕qǐsī dàngāoHSK 3+

cheesecake

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

糕字在不同的语境中有不同的用法。

gāo zì zài bù tóng de yǔ jìng zhōng yǒu bù tóng de yòng fǎ .

The character "糕" has different usages in different contexts.

NewtalkFeb 2026

...美“228限定绿豆润”掀抢购潮!作家揭“糕点神秘标记”背后深意

. . . měi 2 2 8 xiàn dìng lǜ dòu rùn xiān qiǎng gòu cháo ! zuò jiā jiē gāo diǎn shén mì biāo jì bèi hòu shēn yì

... The United States "228 Limited Mung Bean Run" set off a rush to buy! The writer reveals the deep meaning behind the "mysterious mark of pastry"

StheadlineFeb 2026

... 同容祖儿闯罗浮宫爆瘀事..有人听错萝卜糕

. . . tóng róng zǔ ér chuǎng luó fú gōng bào 瘀 shì . . yǒu rén tīng cuò luó bǔ gāo

... Same Rong Zuer broke into the Louvre and exploded: Someone misheard radish cake

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

健康你我他/过年再精简 年糕不可少

jiàn kāng nǐ wǒ tā guò nián zài jīng jiǎn nián gāo bù kě shǎo

Healthy you and me/New Year's Eve and then streamline rice cakes are indispensable

99 健康网Feb 2026

无糖的食品有哪些?饮料、糕点、酸奶都有无糖版吗

wú táng de shí pǐn yǒu nǎ xiē ? yǐn liào , gāo diǎn , suān nǎi dōu yǒu wú táng bǎn ma

What are sugar-free foods? Do drinks, pastries, and yogurt have sugar-free versions?

EttodayFeb 2026

...玩家忧AI淹没游戏...总裁喊:不允许糟糕AI

. . . wán jiā yōu A I yān méi yóu xì . . . zǒng cái hǎn : bù yǔn xǔ zāo gāo A I

... Players are worried about AI flooding the game... The president shouted: No bad AI allowed

Tatoeba

蛋糕?我突然又饿了!

Dàngāo? wǒ tūrán yòu è le!

Cake? I'm suddenly hungry again.

Tatoeba

丧失健康比丧失金钱更糟糕。

Sàngshī jiànkāng bǐ sàngshī jīnqián gèng zāogāo.

Losing one's health is worse than losing money.

Tatoeba

汤姆吹灭了蛋糕上的所有蜡烛。

Tāngmǔ chuī miè le dàngāo shàng de suǒyǒu làzhú.

Tom blew out all the candles on the cake.

Tatoeba

汤姆的厨艺其实不那么糟糕。

Tāngmǔ de chúyì qíshí bù nàme zāogāo.

Tom's cooking was actually not so bad.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 米 (rice) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced gāo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 糕 (gāo) mean in Chinese?
糕 (gāo) primarily means "cake." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #2336 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 糕 have?
糕 is written with 16 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 糕?
The radical associated with 糕 is 米 (rice). This radical appears in many characters related to rice.
What are the components of 糕?
糕 is composed of: 米 (semantic), 羔 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰米羔 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 糕?
Common words with 糕 include: 糟糕 (zāo gāo, "too bad"); 蛋糕 (dàn gāo, "cake"); 糕点 (gāo diǎn, "cakes"); 雪糕 (xuě gāo, "ice cream bar"); 糕饼 (gāo bǐng, "cakes"). There are over 39 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 糕 (gāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gāo: 高 (high), 告 (tell, inform), 搞 (to do), 稿 (manuscript), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 糕 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 糕 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 糕 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.