胳 (gē): armpit

胳 (gē) is a Chinese character meaning “armpit.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺼ (semantic) and 各 (phonetic). It ranks #2405 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 胳 flesh. Its radical form 肉 (meat) appears in many related characters such as 肉 (ròu, meat), 能 (néng, can), 背 (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. armpit

Etymology & Origin

胳

pictophoneticflesh

Decomposition: ⿰⺼各 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 胳

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
胳膊noungē boarm4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
胳膊肘noungē bo zhǒuelbow
胳臂noungē beiarm
胳肢verbgé zhi(dialect) to tickle
胳肢窝noungā zhi wōarmpit
胳膊拧不过大腿gē bo nǐng bu guò dà tuǐ(idiom) the weak cannot overcome the strong
胳臂肘儿noungē bei zhǒu relbow
胳膊肘往外拐phrasegē bo zhǒu wǎng wài guǎisee 胳膊肘朝外拐
胳膊肘朝外拐phrasegē bo zhǒu cháo wài guǎilit. the elbow turns outward (idiom)
胳臂箍儿gē bei gū rarmband
胳膊肘子noungē bo zhǒu zisee 胳膊肘
捋胳膊luō gē boto push up one's sleeves
12
Total compounds
92
As first character
0
As last character
8
As middle character

胳 appears in 12 compound words: 92 as the first character, 0 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 胳 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

膊bó
0.911811 co-occurrences
腿tuǐ
0.511110 co-occurrences
臂bì
0.42436 co-occurrences
枕zhěn
0.42316 co-occurrences
肢zhī
0.40926 co-occurrences
刺cì
0.40080 co-occurrences
摔shuāi
0.38816 co-occurrences
骨gǔ
0.38256 co-occurrences
伤shāng
0.33624 co-occurrences
断duàn
0.33324 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

胳膊肘子gēbozhǒuziHSK 4+

elbow

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

胳字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

gē zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character "胳" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

巧合的是,剧中恰好有胳膊受伤的戏,真伤与戏伤重叠,那一场他演得格外顺畅。

qiǎo gě de shì , jù zhōng qià hǎo yǒu gē bó shòu shāng de xì , zhēn shāng yǔ xì shāng chóng dié , nà yī chǎng tā yǎn dé gé wài shùn chàng .

Coincidentally, there was a scene in the play where his character had an injured arm; his real injury overlapped with the character’s, and he performed that scene with remarkable ease.

爱范儿Aug 2026

视频里人类小哥 2 秒钟就把杯子拿起来了,机器人的铁胳膊可能需要 5 秒。

shì pín lǐ rén lèi xiǎo gē 2 miǎo zhōng jiù bǎ bēi zǐ ná qǐ lái le , jī qì rén de tiě gē bó kě néng xū yāo 5 miǎo .

In the video, the guy picks up the cup in 2 seconds, while the robot's metal arm might take 5 seconds.

少数派May 2026

由你控制注意力慢慢在身体的路径中,去感受自己的头、胳膊、肚子、屁股等等。

yóu nǐ kòng zhì zhù yì lì màn màn zài shēn tǐ de lù jìng zhōng , qù gǎn shòu zì jǐ de tóu , gē bó , dù zǐ , pì gǔ děng děng .

Guide your attention along the pathways of your body, slowly sensing your head, arms, stomach, buttocks, and so on.

Tatoeba

警察抓著小偷的胳膊。

Jǐngchá zhuā zhe xiǎotōu de gēbo.

The policeman grabbed the robber's arm.

Tatoeba

我看见他们胳膊挽着胳膊地走路。

Wǒ kànjiàn tāmen gēbo wǎn zhe gēbo de zǒulù.

I saw them walking arm in arm.

Tatoeba

汤姆碰了我的胳膊肘。

Tāngmǔ pèng le wǒ de gēbozhǒu.

Tom touched my elbow.

Tatoeba

另一个抓住他的胳膊。

Lìngyī gè zhuāzhù tā de gēbo.

The other grasped his arm.

Tatoeba

他只要一动, 伤口就连带整个胳膊都疼。

Tā zhǐyào yī dòng, shāngkǒu jiù liándài zhěnggè gēbo dōu téng.

Whenever he moved, the wound sent pains all along his arm.

Tatoeba

他把身子靠在胳膊上。

Tā bǎ shēnzi kào zài gēbo shàng.

He leaned on his elbows.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the ⺼ (flesh) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced gē

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 胳 (gē) mean in Chinese?
胳 (gē) primarily means "armpit." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #2405 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 胳 and 路?
胳 (gē) and 路 (lù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 肉 vs 足 (same 各 component).
How many strokes does 胳 have?
胳 is written with 10 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 胳?
The radical associated with 胳 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 胳?
胳 is composed of: ⺼ (semantic), 各 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼各 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 胳?
Common words with 胳 include: 胳膊 (gē bo, "arm"); 胳膊肘 (gē bo zhǒu, "elbow"); 胳臂 (gē bei, "arm"); 胳肢 (gé zhi, "(dialect) to tickle"); 胳肢窝 (gā zhi wō, "armpit"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 胳 (gē)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gē: 格 (pattern, standard). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 胳 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 胳 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 胳 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.