宫 (gōng): palace, temple, castration (as corporal punishment)

宫 (gōng) is a Chinese character meaning “palace.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 宀 (semantic) and 吕 (phonetic). It ranks #981 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 宫 roof. Its radical form 宀 (roof) appears in many related characters such as 客 (kè, guest, customer), 家 (jiā, home, family), 它 (tā, it).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. palace
  2. temple
  3. castration (as corporal punishment)

Etymology & Origin

宫

pictophoneticroof

Decomposition: ⿱宀吕 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
白宫proper-nounbái gōngWhite House
子宫nounzǐ gōnguterus
宫殿noungōng diànpalace
迷宫nounmí gōngmaze
皇宫nounhuáng gōngimperial palace
宫廷noungōng tíngcourt (of king or emperor)
宫女noungōng nǚpalace maid
王宫nounwáng gōngimperial palace
卢浮宫proper-nounlú fú gōngthe Louvre, museum in Paris
后宫nounhòu gōngharem
克里姆林宫proper-nounkè lǐ mǔ lín gōngthe Kremlin
南宫proper-nounnán gōngtwo-character surname Nangong
天宫nountiān gōngTemple in Heaven (e.g. of the Jade Emperor)
打入冷宫dǎ rù lěng gōng(idiom) to snub
二进宫verbèr jìn gōngname of a famous opera
100
Total compounds
26
As first character
53
As last character
21
As middle character

宫 appears in 100 compound words: 26 as the first character, 53 as the last, and 21 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 宫 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

垂chuí
0.61653 co-occurrences
廷tíng
0.5419,284 co-occurrences
殿diàn
0.53111,672 co-occurrences
匀yún
0.50612 co-occurrences
腔qiāng
0.50228 co-occurrences
寝qǐn
0.501854 co-occurrences
雌cí
0.48510 co-occurrences
肌jī
0.47641 co-occurrences
颈jǐng
0.472788 co-occurrences
腺xiàn
0.46530 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (9)

爱丽舍宫Àilìshě GōngHSK 6+

the Élysée Palace (official residence of the President of France)

白金汉宫Báijīnhàn GōngHSK 6+

Buckingham Palace

布达拉宫Bùdálā GōngHSK 6+

Potala Palace (chief residence of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa)

蟾宫折桂chángōngzhéguì

to pass the imperial examination

phrase
打入冷宫dǎ rù lěng gōngHSK 6+

(idiom) to snub; to consign to the trash heap of history

phrase
凡尔赛宫Fán'ěrsài GōngHSK 6+

Palace of Versailles

宫保鸡丁Gōngbǎo jīdīngHSK 7+

Kung Pao chicken

noun
宫爆鸡丁Gōngbào jīdīngHSK 7+

alternative form of 宮保雞丁 /宫保鸡丁 (Gōngbǎo jīdīng)

noun
子宫颈癌zǐgōngjǐng'áiHSK 7+

cervical cancer

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习宫字需要反复练习,才能写得工整。

xué xí gōng zì xū yāo fǎn fù liàn xí , cái néng xiě dé gōng zhěng .

Mastering the character "宫" requires repeated practice to achieve neat and precise writing.

English News - RthkFeb 2026

...闯特朗普住所海湖庄园警戒线男子被击毙 白宫指特勤局果断行动

. . . chuǎng tè lǎng pǔ zhù suǒ hǎi hú zhuāng yuán jǐng jiè xiàn nán zǐ bèi jī bì bái gōng zhǐ tè qín jú guǒ duàn háng dòng

... A man who broke into the cordon of Mar-a-Lago at Trump's residence was killed, and the White House said the Secret Service acted decisively

三立新聞網Feb 2026

73岁阿公“宫内早孕”?中国医院报告扯

7 3 suì ā gōng gōng nèi zǎo yùn ? zhōng guó yī yuàn bào gào chě

73-year-old grandfather "intrauterine early pregnancy"? Chinese hospital report pulls

LtnFeb 2026

激烈4轮PK决胜 彰化慈航宫年度总斗首出炉

jī liè 4 lún P K jué shèng zhāng huà cí háng gōng nián dù zǒng dǒu shǒu chū lú

Fierce 4 rounds of PK decisive Changhua Cihang Palace's annual general fight was released

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

彰化竹塘慈航宫总斗首之争 第三轮PK分胜负 桃园人拿下...

zhāng huà zhú táng cí háng gōng zǒng dǒu shǒu zhī zhēng dì sān lún P K fēn shèng fù táo yuán rén ná xià . . .

Changhua Zhutang Cihang Palace total battle for the third round of PK points Taoyuan people won...

Tatoeba

埃菲尔铁塔和卢浮宫在同一座城市。

āifēi'ěr Tiětǎ hé Lúfúgōng zài tóngyī zuò chéngshì.

The Eiffel Tower is in the same city as the Louvre Museum.

Tatoeba

他出生在一个宫殿里,那宫殿已经不存在了。

Tā chūshēng zài yī gè gōngdiàn lǐ, nà gōngdiàn yǐjīng bù cúnzài le.

He was born in a palace that isn't there any more.

Tatoeba

贵族住在故宫的东边和西边。

Guìzú zhù zài gùgōng de dōngbian hé xībiān.

Aristocrats lived to the east and west of the imperial palace.

Tatoeba

宫崎不是它往日的样子了。

Gōngqí bù shì tā wǎngrì de yàngzi le.

Miyazaki is not what it used to be.

Tatoeba

守宫砂是中国古代用来验证女人贞操的方法.

Shǒugōng shā shì Zhōngguó gǔdài yònglái yànzhèng nǚrén zhēncāo de fāngfǎ.

Shougongsha is an old Chinese technique to test a woman's virginity.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 宀 (roof) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced gōng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 宫 (gōng) mean in Chinese?
宫 (gōng) primarily means "palace." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #981 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 宫 and 侣?
宫 (gōng) and 侣 (lǚ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 宀 vs 亻 (same 吕 component).
How many strokes does 宫 have?
宫 is written with 9 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 宫?
The radical associated with 宫 is 宀 (roof). This radical appears in many characters related to roof.
What are the components of 宫?
宫 is composed of: 宀 (semantic), 吕 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱宀吕 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 宫?
Common words with 宫 include: 白宫 (bái gōng, "White House"); 子宫 (zǐ gōng, "uterus"); 宫殿 (gōng diàn, "palace"); 迷宫 (mí gōng, "maze"); 皇宫 (huáng gōng, "imperial palace"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 宫 (gōng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gōng: 公 (public), 工 (work), 共 (common), 功 (meritorious deed or service), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 宫 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 宫 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 宫 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.