戈 (gē): dagger-axe, abbr. for 戈瑞, (Tw) abbr. for 戈雷

戈 (gē) is a Chinese character meaning “dagger-axe.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical 戈 (halberd). It ranks #1680 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, 戈 a spear pointing to the bottom-right. Its radical form 戈 (halberd) appears in many related characters such as 我 (wǒ, I), 成 (chéng, to succeed), 或 (huò, maybe).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 戈 halberd4 strokesFrequency #1680

Definitions

  1. dagger-axe
  2. abbr. for 戈瑞
  3. (Tw) abbr. for 戈雷

Etymology & Origin

戈

pictographicA spear pointing to the bottom-right

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
探戈nountàn gētango (dance) (loanword)
伊戈尔proper-nounyī gē ěrIgor
戈培尔proper-noungē péi ěrJoseph Goebbels (1897-1945), German Nazi leader and politician
戈尔gē ěrGore (name)
倒戈verbdǎo gēto change sides in a war
戈尔巴乔夫proper-noungē ěr bā qiáo fūGorbachev
大动干戈dà dòng gān gēlit. to go to war (idiom)
干戈noungān gēweapons of war
加拉帕戈斯群岛proper-nounjiā lā pà gē sī qún dǎoGalapagos Islands
戈比noungē bǐkopeck (unit of money, one hundredth of ruble) (loanword)
戈壁proper-noungē bìGobi (desert)
果戈里guǒ gē lǐNikolai Gogol (1809-1852), Russian author and dramatist
弗拉明戈nounfú lā míng gēflamenco (Tw) (loanword)
金戈铁马phrasejīn gē tiě mǎvery powerful army
同室操戈phrasetóng shì cāo gēwielding the halberd within the household (idiom)
49
Total compounds
33
As first character
24
As last character
43
As middle character

戈 appears in 49 compound words: 33 as the first character, 24 as the last, and 43 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 戈 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

迭dié
0.5822,310 co-occurrences
尔ěr
0.50321,312 co-occurrences
倒dǎo
0.4623,490 co-occurrences
壁bì
0.4421,864 co-occurrences
乔qiáo
0.4391,708 co-occurrences
登dēng
0.4386,790 co-occurrences
德dé
0.42613,442 co-occurrences
雷léi
0.4255,612 co-occurrences
麦mài
0.4201,678 co-occurrences
里lǐ
0.41011,826 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

兵戈扰攘bīng gē rǎo rǎngHSK 7+

arms and confusion (idiom); turmoil of war

phrase
大动干戈dà dòng gān gēHSK 7+

lit. to go to war (idiom); fig. to make a big fuss over sth

phrase
倒戈卸甲dǎo gē xiè jiǎHSK 7+

to lay down arms

phrase
戈兰高地Gēlán GāodìHSK 7+

Golan Heights

金戈铁马jīngētiěmǎHSK 7+

military exploits or career; mighty and majestic army

phrase
萨拉戈萨SàlāgēsàHSK 7+

Zaragoza

同室操戈tóngshìcāogēHSK 7+

to fight one another; to fight each other who is in the same group; to have internal conflict or strife

phrase
枕戈待旦zhěngēdàidànHSK 7+

to be vigilant and ready for battle

phrase
枕戈寝甲zhěn gē qǐn jiǎHSK 7+

lit. to sleep on one's armor with a spear as a pillow (idiom); fig. to keep ready for battle at all times

phrase

Showing 9 of 10 idioms containing 戈.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了戈字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le gē zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "戈" in the dictionary.

Mix ValeApr 2026

弗鲁米嫩塞 x 弗拉门戈确认阵容:今天下午 6 点巴西锦标赛现场...

fú lǔ mǐ nèn sāi x fú lā mén gē què rèn zhèn róng : jīn tiān xià wǔ 6 diǎn bā xī jǐn biāo sài xiàn chǎng . . .

Fluminense vs. Flamengo: Lineups Confirmed—Brazilian Championship Live at 6 p.m. today...

LtnApr 2026

中职》曾颂恩一度点燃攻势!兄弟王牌罗戈罕见状况导致落后

zhōng zhí céng sòng ēn yī dù diǎn rán gōng shì ! xiōng dì wáng pái luó gē hǎn jiàn zhuàng kuàng dǎo zhì luò hòu

"Zhongzhi": Zeng Songen Sparked a Rally! Brothers' Ace Rogo Struggled Uncharacteristically, Leading to a Deficit

Yahoo FinanceMar 2026

《盈警》南戈壁(01878.HK)估计去年转亏1.5...

yíng jǐng nán gē bì ( 0 1 8 7 8 . H K ) gū jì qù nián zhuǎn kuī 1 . 5 . . .

[Profit Warning] South Gobi (01878.HK) estimates a net loss of 1.5... for last year

Hk01.comMar 2026

英国允美国用中东基地 美媒:伊朗向迪戈加西亚美英基地发射导弹

yīng guó yǔn měi guó yòng zhōng dōng jī dì měi méi : yī lǎng xiàng dí gē jiā xī yà měi yīng jī dì fā shè dǎo dàn

UK Allows US to Use Bases in the Middle East; US Media: Iran Fires Missiles at US-UK Base on Diego Garcia

透视俄罗斯 | 俄罗斯新闻Feb 2026

约1.5万人参加:恶劣天气难挡布拉戈维申斯克谢肉节庆典

yuē 1 . 5 wàn rén cān jiā : è liè tiān qì nán dǎng bù lā gē wéi shēn sī kè xiè ròu jié qìng diǎn

About 15,000 people participated: bad weather could not stop the Blagoveshchensk Thanksgiving Meat Day celebration

Tatoeba

罗德里戈把丽玛扔了回去。

Luó Délǐ gē bǎ lì mǎ rēng le huíqu.

Rodrigo threw Rima back.

Tatoeba

伊戈尔非常不屑一顾。

Yīgē'ěr fēicháng bùxièyīgù.

Igor was very dismissive.

Tatoeba

劳拉英戈尔斯是在草原上长大的。

Láo lā yīng Gē'ěr sī shì zài cǎoyuán shàng zhǎngdà de.

Laura Ingalls grew up on the prairie.

Tatoeba

戈登对日本的生活方式感兴趣。

Gēdēng duì Rìběn de shēnghuó fāngshì gǎnxìngqù.

Gordon is interested in the Japanese way of life.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced gē

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 戈 (gē) mean in Chinese?
戈 (gē) primarily means "dagger-axe." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1680 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 戈 have?
戈 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 戈?
The radical associated with 戈 is 戈 (halberd). This radical appears in many characters related to halberd.
What are common words containing 戈?
Common words with 戈 include: 探戈 (tàn gē, "tango (dance) (loanword)"); 伊戈尔 (yī gē ěr, "Igor"); 戈培尔 (gē péi ěr, "Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945), German Nazi leader and politician"); 戈尔 (gē ěr, "Gore (name)"); 倒戈 (dǎo gē, "to change sides in a war"). There are over 49 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 戈 (gē)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gē: 个 ((classifier used before a noun that has no specific classifier)), 各 (each), 格 (pattern, standard), 哥 (elder brother), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 戈 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 戈 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 戈 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.