隔 (gé): to separate, to partition, to stand or lie between

隔 (gé) is a Chinese character meaning “to separate.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 阝 (semantic) and 鬲 (phonetic). It ranks #1311 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 隔 wall. Its radical form 阝 (mound) appears in many related characters such as 那 (nà, (specifier) that), 都 (dōu, all), 院 (yuàn, courtyard).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to separate
  2. to partition
  3. to stand or lie between

Etymology & Origin

隔

pictophoneticwall

Decomposition: ⿰阝鬲 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 隔

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
隔壁noungé bìnext door6
间隔noun/verbjiàn gégap6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
隔离verbgé líto separate
隔间noungé jiāncompartment
相隔verbxiāng géseparated by (distance or time etc)
与世隔绝phraseyǔ shì gé juéto be cut off from the rest of the world (idiom)
隔音verbgé yīnsoundproofing
隔绝verbgé juéto cut off
隔阂noungé hémisunderstanding
分隔verbfēn géto divide
隔膜adjectivegé módiaphragm (anatomy)
阻隔verbzǔ géto separate
隔热verbgé rèto insulate thermally
隔板gé bǎndivider
隔夜adjectivegé yèovernight
时隔verbshí géseparated in time (usu. followed by a quantity of time)
隔断verbgé duànpartition
70
Total compounds
53
As first character
23
As last character
24
As middle character

隔 appears in 70 compound words: 53 as the first character, 23 as the last, and 24 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 隔 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

阂hé
0.631678 co-occurrences
离lí
0.60424,742 co-occurrences
壁bì
0.5205,423 co-occurrences
澎péng
0.45810 co-occurrences
相xiāng
0.44118,950 co-occurrences
间jiān
0.43612,512 co-occurrences
膜mó
0.4291,450 co-occurrences
酷kù
0.42010 co-occurrences
箭jiàn
0.41210 co-occurrences
阻zǔ
0.4002,340 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

隔岸观火gé'ànguānhuǒHSK 6+

to delay entering the fray until all others have been exhausted by fighting amongst themselves

phrase
隔墙有耳géqiángyǒu'ěrHSK 5+

walls have ears

phrase
隔三差五gésānchàwǔHSK 5+

every now and then; every so often; every once in a while

phrase
恍若隔世huǎng ruò gé shìHSK 7+

see 恍如隔世

phrase
天悬地隔tiān xuán dì géHSK 7+

see 天差地遠|天差地远

phrase
与世隔绝yǔshìgéjuéHSK 5+

to be isolated from the rest of the world

phrase
种族隔离zhǒngzú gélíHSK 5+

racial segregation; apartheid

noun
隔靴搔痒géxuēsāoyǎngHSK 7+

to attempt an ineffective solution

phrase

Showing 8 of 10 idioms containing 隔.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

两国之间隔着一条大河,交通不太方便。

Liǎng guó zhī jiān gézhe yī tiáo dà hé, jiāotōng bù tài fāngbiàn.

The two countries are separated by a large river, making transportation inconvenient.

99 健康网Feb 2026

青菜煮熟能过夜吗能吃吗?这些隔夜菜知识要牢记

qīng cài zhǔ shú néng guò yè ma néng chī ma ? zhè xiē gé yè cài zhī shí yāo láo jì

Can cooked greens be left overnight? Are they still safe to eat? Keep these overnight leftovers tips in mind.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

...採購即時到位 Coupang酷澎火箭速配隔日到貨

. . . 採 購 jí 時 dào wèi kù 澎 huǒ jiàn sù pèi gé rì dào 貨

Instant Procurement Coupang Rocket Delivery: Next-Day Arrival

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

隔夜shibor升4.64個基點 報1.3...

gé yè shēng . 個 jī 點 報 . . . .

The overnight SHIBOR rose by 4.64 basis points to 1.3...

東方日報Feb 2026

相隔14年 美打算重開駐敍利亞大使館

xiāng gé nián měi dǎ suàn chóng 開 駐 敍 lì 亞 dà shǐ 館

After a 14-year hiatus, the U.S. plans to reopen its embassy in Syria.

東方日報Feb 2026

江若琳支持老公追夢 相隔20年再出歌

jiāng ruò 琳 zhī chí lǎo gōng zhuī 夢 xiāng gé nián zài chū gē

Jolene Jiang supports her husband's pursuit of dreams and releases another song after 20 years.

Tatoeba

我们曾是隔壁邻居。

Wǒmen céng shì gébì línjū.

We used to be neighbours.

Tatoeba

中国与美国隔着哪个大洋?

Zhōngguó yǔ Měiguó gé zhe nǎge dàyáng?

Which ocean separates China and America?

Tatoeba

每隔四年,奥运会举行一次。

Měigé sì nián, àoyùnhuì jǔxíng yīcì.

The Olympic Games take place at intervals of four years.

Tatoeba

我每隔一天去购物。

Wǒ měigé yī tiān qù gòuwù.

I go shopping every other day.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 阝 (wall) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced gé

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 隔 (gé) mean in Chinese?
隔 (gé) primarily means "to separate." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1311 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 隔 have?
隔 is written with 12 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 隔?
The radical associated with 隔 is 阝 (mound). This radical appears in many characters related to mound.
What are the components of 隔?
隔 is composed of: 阝 (semantic), 鬲 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰阝鬲 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 隔?
Common words with 隔 include: 隔壁 (gé bì, "next door"); 隔离 (gé lí, "to separate"); 隔间 (gé jiān, "compartment"); 间隔 (jiàn gé, "gap"); 相隔 (xiāng gé, "separated by (distance or time etc)"). There are over 70 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 隔 (gé)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gé: 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 隔 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 隔 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 隔 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.