(gěng): to choke with emotion

(gěng) is a Chinese character meaning “to choke with emotion.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #3010 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, mouth. Its radical form (mouth) appears in many related characters such as (kǒu, mouth), (chī, to eat), (, to drink).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to choke with emotion

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口更 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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
gěng yèto choke with emotion
gěng sǐ(intransitive) to choke to death
bēi gěngto choke with grief
gěng yēto choke on one's food
gěng hóuvariant of 鯁喉|鲠喉[geng3 hou2]
5
Total compounds
80
As first character
20
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 5 compound words: 80 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 0 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.

yān
0.7851,728 co-occurrences
0.46530 co-occurrences
hóu
0.44872 co-occurrences
lèi
0.42930 co-occurrences
bēi
0.35536 co-occurrences
luò
0.341150 co-occurrences
0.32654 co-occurrences
fàn
0.31436 co-occurrences
jīn
0.30648 co-occurrences
0.306258 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

才很好,能言善辩,是个出色的律师。

tā gěng cái hěn hǎo , néng yán shàn biàn , shì gè chū sè de lǜ shī .

He has a way with words and is a skilled orator; he’s an outstanding lawyer.

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

影/黄国昌咽愧对柯文哲 自责做得不够多

yǐng huáng guó chāng gěng yān kuì duì Kē wén zhé zì zé zuò dé bù gòu duō

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

重提与周杰伦恩怨!吴宗宪讲到咽:这辈子我只要求你一件事

chóng tí yǔ zhōu jié lún ēn yuàn ! wú zōng xiàn jiǎng dào gěng yān : zhè bèi zǐ wǒ zhī yāo qiú nǐ yī jiàn shì

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

马英九开撕亲信喊“六亲不认”!萧旭岑咽暗指失智懒人包一次看

mǎ yīng jiǔ kāi sī qīn xìn hǎn liù qīn bù rèn ! xiāo xù 岑 gěng yān àn zhǐ shī zhì lǎn rén bāo yī cì kàn

Ma Ying-jeou Clashes with Close Aide, Accusing Him of "Betraying Even His Own Kin"! Hsiao Hsu-tsen Chokes Up, Implicitly Suggesting Dementia—A Quick Guide to the Whole Story

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Mar 2026

港宏福苑听证会 居民忆述逃生 咽未能救邻

gǎng hóng fú 苑 tīng zhèng huì jū mín yì shù táo shēng gěng yān wèi néng jiù lín

Hong Kong's Hong Fook Court Hearing: Residents Recall Their Escape, Choking Back Tears Over Their Inability to Save Neighbors

LtnFeb 2026

中国网红“陈老师”被禁入台5年!咽怕撑不下去:可能要说再见了

zhōng guó wǎng hóng chén lǎo shī bèi jīn rù tái 5 nián ! gěng yān pà chēng bù xià qù : kě néng yāo shuō zài jiàn le

Chinese Internet celebrity "Teacher Chen" was banned from Taiwan for 5 years! Choking up for fear of not being able to hold on: I may have to say goodbye

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 哽 (gěng) mean in Chinese?
哽 (gěng) primarily means "to choke with emotion." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #3010 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 哽 and 硬?
哽 (gěng) and 硬 (yìng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 口 vs 石 (same 更 component).
How many strokes does 哽 have?
哽 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 哽?
The radical associated with 哽 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 哽?
哽 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 更 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口更 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 哽?
Common words with 哽 include: 哽咽 (gěng yè, "to choke with emotion"); 哽死 (gěng sǐ, "(intransitive) to choke to death"); 悲哽 (bēi gěng, "to choke with grief"); 哽噎 (gěng yē, "to choke on one's food"); 哽喉 (gěng hóu, "variant of 鯁喉|鲠喉[geng3 hou2]"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
Is 哽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 哽 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.