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

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

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

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: halberd4 strokesFrequency #1680

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

pictographicA spear pointing to the bottom-right

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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
tàn gētango (dance) (loanword)
yī gē ěrIgor
gē péi ěrJoseph Goebbels (1897-1945), German Nazi leader and politician
gē ěrGore (name)
dǎo gēto change sides in a war
gē ěr bā qiáo fūGorbachev
dà dòng gān gēlit. to go to war (idiom)
gān gēweapons of war
jiā lā pà gē sī qún dǎoGalapagos Islands
gē bǐkopeck (unit of money, one hundredth of ruble) (loanword)
gē bìGobi (desert)
guǒ gē lǐNikolai Gogol (1809-1852), Russian author and dramatist
jīn gē tiě mǎvery powerful army
tóng shì cāo gēwielding the halberd within the household (idiom)
tài gē ěrRabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Indian poet and writer
47
Total compounds
34
As first character
23
As last character
43
As middle character

appears in 47 compound words: 34 as the first character, 23 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

dié
0.5906,930 co-occurrences
ěr
0.51063,936 co-occurrences
dǎo
0.46910,470 co-occurrences
qiáo
0.4455,124 co-occurrences
dēng
0.44420,370 co-occurrences
0.4335,580 co-occurrences
léi
0.43116,836 co-occurrences
0.42940,330 co-occurrences
mài
0.4265,034 co-occurrences
0.41635,478 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

bīng gē rǎo rǎngHSK 7+

arms and confusion (idiom); turmoil of war

phrase
dà dòng gān gēHSK 7+

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

phrase
dǎo gē xiè jiǎHSK 7+

to lay down arms

phrase
Gēlán GāodìHSK 7+

Golan Heights

jīngētiěmǎHSK 7+

military exploits or career; mighty and majestic army

phrase
Qiáogēlǐ FēngHSK 7+

K2 (the second highest mountain on earth)

SàlāgēsàHSK 7+

Zaragoza

tóngshìcāogēHSK 7+

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

phrase
zhěngēdàidànHSK 7+

to be vigilant and ready for battle

phrase
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

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

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.

LtnApr 2026

中职》曾颂恩一度点燃攻势!兄弟王牌罗罕见状况导致落后

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

Yahoo FinanceMar 2026

《盈警》南壁(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

罗德里把丽玛扔了回去。

Luó Délǐ gē bǎ lì mǎ rēng le huíqu.

Rodrigo threw Rima back.

Tatoeba

尔非常不屑一顾。

Yīgē'ěr fēicháng bùxièyīgù.

Igor was very dismissive.

Tatoeba

劳拉英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

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.

Tatoeba

罗德里突然出现。

Luó Délǐ gē tūrán chūxiàn.

Rodrigo suddenly appeared.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

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 47 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 戈 (gē)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gē: 哥 (elder brother), 胳 (armpit), 歌 (song), 革 (animal hide), and 5 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 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.