(gāo): cake

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

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. cake

Etymology & Origin

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adjectivezāo gāotoo bad5
noundàn gāocake3
nounxuě gāoice cream bar5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
gāo diǎncakes
gāo bǐngcakes
nián gāonian gao, New Year cake, typically a sweet, steamed cake made with glutinous rice flour
zhá gāofried glutinous rice dough cake
bīng gāoice-cream
mǎ lā gāoCantonese sponge cake also known as mara cake
qǐ sī dàn gāocheesecake
qǐ shì dàn gāocheesecake
xiǎo sōng gāomuffin
fā gāofa gao, a type of steamed sponge cake, usu. sweetened, commonly consumed at Chinese New Year
zào xíng dàn gāocustom-designed cake (e.g. cake shaped like a guitar, camera or cartoon character)
zhòng yóu dàn gāopound cake
hēi sēn lín dàn gāoBlack Forest cake
nián lún dàn gāobaumkuchen (cake)
yún piàn gāoa kind of cake
39
Total compounds
5
As first character
87
As last character
8
As middle character

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

zāo
0.84426,387 co-occurrences
dàn
0.71329,815 co-occurrences
chǎo
0.4931,194 co-occurrences
xuě
0.4805,460 co-occurrences
bǐng
0.441504 co-occurrences
hōng
0.437342 co-occurrences
bèi
0.430198 co-occurrences
lào
0.428330 co-occurrences
diàn
0.4254,794 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.412108 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

hǎimián dàngāoHSK 7+

spongecake

noun
qǐsī dàngāoHSK 3+

cheesecake

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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“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

. . . 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、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

?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

Sàngshī jiànkāng bǐ sàngshī jīnqián gèng zāogāo.

Losing one's health is worse than losing money.

Tatoeba

汤姆吹灭了蛋上的所有蜡烛。

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

Tāngmǔ de chúyì qíshí bù nàme zāogāo.

Tom's cooking was actually not so bad.

Character Family

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), 膏 (ointment), 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 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.