庚 (gēng): age, seventh of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干, seventh in order

庚 (gēng) is a Chinese character meaning “age.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 广 (structural). It ranks #4375 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation
Radical: 广 shelter8 strokesFrequency #4375广 structural

Definitions

  1. age
  2. seventh of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干
  3. seventh in order

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
贵庚nounguì gēngyour age (honorific)
庚子国变gēng zǐ guó biànthe crisis year of 1900 involving the Boxer uprising and the eight nation military invasion
华罗庚huà luó gēngHua Luogeng (1910-1985), Chinese number theorist
庚子gēng zǐ37th year G1 of the 60-year cycle, e.g. 1960 or 2020
年庚nián gēngdate and time of a person's birth
长庚cháng gēngClassical Chinese name for planet Venus in the west after dusk
庚午noungēng wǔseventh year G7 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 1990 or 2050
庚申noungēng shēnfifty-seventh year G9 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 1980 or 2040
庚糖gēng tángheptose (CH2O)7, monosaccharide with seven carbon atoms
仓庚cāng gēngblack-naped oriole (Oriolus chinensis)
庚戌gēng xūforty-seventh year G11 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 1970 or 2030
庚寅gēng yíntwenty-seventh year G3 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 2010 or 2070
庚辰noungēng chénseventeenth year G5 of the 60 year cycle, e.g. 2000 or 2060
13
Total compounds
62
As first character
38
As last character
0
As middle character

庚 appears in 13 compound words: 62 as the first character, 38 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

“节到小暑进伏天”,我国古代历法对“三伏天”的推算沿用至今,夏至起第三个庚日为初伏。

jié dào xiǎo shǔ jìn fú tiān , wǒ guó gǔ dài lì fǎ duì sān fú tiān de tuī suàn yán yòng zhì jīn , xià zhì qǐ dì sān gè gēng rì wéi chū fú .

“When the Minor Heat solar term arrives, the ‘Three Dog Days’ begin.” The calculation of the “Three Dog Days” according to ancient Chinese calendars is still used today; the third Geng day after the Summer Solstice marks the beginning of the first Dog Day.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

以此类推,夏至后第四个庚日为中伏起始日,立秋后的第一个庚日为末伏首日。

yǐ cǐ lèi tuī , xià zhì hòu dì sì gè gēng rì wéi zhōng fú qǐ shǐ rì , lì qiū hòu de dì yī gè gēng rì wéi mò fú shǒu rì .

By the same token, the fourth Geng day after the Summer Solstice marks the beginning of the Middle Dog Days, and the first Geng day after the Start of Autumn marks the beginning of the End of the Dog Days.

中国新闻网·文化Jun 2026

这种精神气质,在后来陈嘉庚先生主持建设集美学村时得到了进一步延续和彰显。

zhè zhǒng jīng shén qì zhì , zài hòu lái chén jiā gēng xiān shēng zhǔ chí jiàn shè jí měi xué cūn shí dé dào le jìn yī bù yán xù hé zhāng xiǎn .

This spirit was further carried forward and exemplified when Mr. Chen Jiageng later oversaw the construction of the Jimei Academic Village.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

这是闽籍华侨和庚曾寄给家人的侨批中的内容,回顾了他早年在马来亚打拼的历程。

zhè shì mǐn jí huá qiáo hé gēng céng jì gěi jiā rén de qiáo pī zhōng de nèi róng , huí gù le tā zǎo nián zài mǎ lái yà dǎ pīn de lì chéng .

This is an excerpt from a "qiaopi" letter that He Geng, an overseas Chinese from Fujian, once sent to his family, in which he recounted his early years of hard work in Malaya.

中国新闻网·文化May 2026

影片由原着作者郑执编剧并执导,于和伟、高圆圆、韩庚、张天爱领衔主演,乔杉特别出演。

yǐng piàn yóu yuán zhe zuò zhě zhèng zhí biān jù bìng zhí dǎo , yú hé wěi , gāo yuán yuán , hán gēng , zhāng tiān ài lǐng xián zhǔ yǎn , qiáo 杉 tè bié chū yǎn .

The film was written and directed by Zheng Zhi, the author of the original work, and stars Yu Hewei, Gao Yuanyuan, Han Geng, and Zhang Tian'ai, with Qiao Shan making a special appearance.

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 庚 (gēng) mean in Chinese?
庚 (gēng) primarily means "age." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #4375 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 庚 have?
庚 is written with 8 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 庚?
The radical associated with 庚 is 广 (shelter). This radical appears in many characters related to shelter.
What are the components of 庚?
庚 is composed of: 广 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 庚?
Common words with 庚 include: 贵庚 (guì gēng, "your age (honorific)"); 庚子国变 (gēng zǐ guó biàn, "the crisis year of 1900 involving the Boxer uprising and the eight nation military invasion"); 华罗庚 (huà luó gēng, "Hua Luogeng (1910-1985), Chinese number theorist"); 庚子 (gēng zǐ, "37th year G1 of the 60-year cycle, e.g. 1960 or 2020"); 年庚 (nián gēng, "date and time of a person's birth"). There are over 13 compound words containing this character.
Is 庚 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 庚 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 庚 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.