共 (gòng): common, general, to share

共 (gòng) is a Chinese character meaning “common.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 廾 (structural), 一 (structural) and 八 (structural). It ranks #330 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 共 two hands 八 holding one object 廾. Its radical form 八 (eight) appears in many related characters such as 八 (bā, eight), 六 (liù, six), 关 (guān, mountain pass).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. common
  2. general
  3. to share

Etymology & Origin

共

ideographicTwo hands 八 holding one object 廾

Decomposition: ⿳廾一八 (layout: top-middle-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 共

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
共同adjectivegòng tóngcommon4
公共adjectivegōng gòngpublic4
一共adverbyī gòngin total3
总共adverbzǒng gòngaltogether5
共享verbgòng xiǎngto share5
共计verbgòng jìto sum up to6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
共事verbgòng shìto work together
共同点noungòng tóng diǎncommon ground
共和党proper-noungòng hé dǎngRepublican Party
共识noungòng shícommon understanding
共和国noungòng hé guórepublic
核磁共振nounhé cí gòng zhènnuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)
共有verbgòng yǒuin total there are ...
共产党noungòng chǎn dǎngCommunist Party
共鸣verbgòng míng(physics) to resonate
共产主义noungòng chǎn zhǔ yìcommunism
共处verbgòng chǔto coexist
公共场所noungōng gòng chǎng suǒpublic place
共犯verbgòng fànaccomplice
共谋verbgòng móuto scheme together
共和noungòng hérepublic
100
Total compounds
61
As first character
17
As last character
22
As middle character

共 appears in 100 compound words: 61 as the first character, 17 as the last, and 22 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 共 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

华huá
0.57498,986 co-occurrences
产chǎn
0.52980,434 co-occurrences
和hé
0.505315,178 co-occurrences
国guó
0.499213,158 co-occurrences
央yāng
0.49747,936 co-occurrences
民mín
0.491156,002 co-occurrences
党dǎng
0.48392,625 co-occurrences
有yǒu
0.482288,490 co-occurrences
公gōng
0.469183,350 co-occurrences
同tóng
0.467232,191 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (29)

不共戴天bùgòngdàitiānHSK 4+

to be absolutely irreconcilable

phrase
公共场所gōnggòng chǎngsuǒHSK 3+

public place

noun
公共关系gōnggòng guānxìHSK 3+

public relations

noun
公共汽车gōnggòng qìchēHSK 3+

public bus; town bicycle

noun
公共设施gōng gòng shè shīHSK 5+

public facilities; infrastructure

phrase
公共事业gōnggòng shìyèHSK 3+

public work

noun
公共卫生gōnggòng wèishēngHSK 3+

public health

noun
公共行政gōnggòng xíngzhèngHSK 5+

public administration

noun
公共秩序gōng gòng zhì xùHSK 6+

public order

phrase
共产国际Gòngchǎn GuójìHSK 4+

Communist International; Comintern

共产主义gòngchǎn zhǔyìHSK 5+

communism

noun
共商大计gòngshāngdàjìHSK 4+

to discuss matters of vital importance

phrase

Showing 12 of 29 idioms containing 共.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我们应该共同努力,保护好我们的环境。

Wǒmen yīnggāi gòngtóng nǔlì, bǎohù hǎo wǒmen de huánjìng.

We should work together to protect our environment.

News For ChineseFeb 2026

“民歌50”唱进湾区,共赴岁月的约定

mín gē 5 0 chàng jìn wān qū , gòng fù suì yuè de yuē dìng

"Folk Song 50" sung into the Bay Area and went to the agreement of the years

百度新闻Feb 2026

...春中国行丨中国年遇上“送冬节”:中俄民众共赴春天..

. . . chūn zhōng guó háng 丨 zhōng guó nián yù shàng sòng dōng jié : zhōng é mín zhòng gòng fù chūn tiān . .

... Spring China Tour丨Chinese New Year meets "Winter Festival": Chinese and Russian people go to spring together:

百度新闻Feb 2026

“莫斯科送冬节”在京开幕,市民游客共赴俄罗斯春日之..

mò sī kē sòng dōng jié zài jīng kāi mù , shì mín yóu kè gòng fù é luó sī chūn rì zhī . .

"Moscow Winter Festival" opened in Beijing, the public and tourists to visit the Russian spring....

百度新闻Feb 2026

高速交警邀“义务巡逻员”共吃年夜饭 警民共守平安路

gāo sù jiāo jǐng yāo yì wù xún luó yuán gòng chī nián yè fàn jǐng mín gòng shǒu píng ān lù

Highway traffic police invited "volunteer patrollers" to eat New Year's Eve dinner, police and people to guard the safe road together

百度新闻Feb 2026

全球多地举办活动共庆新春佳节

quán qiú duō dì jǔ bàn huó dòng gòng qìng xīn chūn jiā jié

Many places around the world organize events to celebrate the Lunar New Year festivities

Tatoeba

公共汽车上发生什么了?

Gōnggòngqìchē shàng fāshēng shénme le?

What happened on the bus?

Tatoeba

你是否坐公共汽车去上学?

Nǐ shìfǒu zuò gōnggòngqìchē qù shàngxué?

Do you go to school by bus?

Tatoeba

秘鲁的共通语言是什么?

Bìlǔ de gòngtōng yǔyán shì shénme?

What is the common language in Peru?

Tatoeba

你一共花了多少钱?

Nǐ yīgòng huā le duōshao qián?

What is the total amount of money you spent?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced gòng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 共 (gòng) mean in Chinese?
共 (gòng) primarily means "common." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #330 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 共 have?
共 is written with 6 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 共?
The radical associated with 共 is 八 (eight). This radical appears in many characters related to eight.
What are the components of 共?
共 is composed of: 廾 (structural), 一 (structural), 八 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿳廾一八 with a top-middle-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 共?
Common words with 共 include: 共同 (gòng tóng, "common"); 公共 (gōng gòng, "public"); 一共 (yī gòng, "in total"); 共事 (gòng shì, "to work together"); 共同点 (gòng tóng diǎn, "common ground"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 共 (gòng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gòng: 公 (public), 工 (work), 功 (meritorious deed or service), 供 (to supply, to provide), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 共 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 共 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 共 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.