拱 (gǒng): to cup one's hands in salute, to surround, to arch

拱 (gǒng) is a Chinese character meaning “to cup one's hands in salute.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 共 (phonetic). It ranks #2468 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 拱 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to cup one's hands in salute
  2. to surround
  3. to arch

Etymology & Origin

拱

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌共 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
拱手verbgǒng shǒuto cup one's hands in obeisance or greeting
拱门noungǒng ménarched door
拱形noungǒng xíngarch
拱桥noungǒng qiáoarch bridge
拱道gǒng dàoarchway
拱柱gǒng zhùpillar of a vault
拱手让人phrasegǒng shǒu ràng rén(idiom) to surrender sth without resistance
拱手相让gǒng shǒu xiāng ràng(idiom) to surrender sth without resistance
众星拱月phrasezhòng xīng gǒng yuèsee 眾星捧月|众星捧月
远拱点yuǎn gǒng diǎn(astronomy) apoapsis
近拱点jìn gǒng diǎn(astronomy) periapsis
打拱作揖phrasedǎ gǒng zuò yīto bow respectfully with clasped hands
拱点gǒng diǎn(astronomy) apsis
打拱dǎ gǒngto bow with clasped hands
拱度gǒng dùcamber
35
Total compounds
63
As first character
17
As last character
20
As middle character

拱 appears in 35 compound words: 63 as the first character, 17 as the last, and 20 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 拱 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

桥qiáo
0.5454,690 co-occurrences
廊láng
0.5452,100 co-occurrences
顶dǐng
0.5082,092 co-occurrences
墅shù
0.507670 co-occurrences
券quàn
0.4971,236 co-occurrences
门mén
0.4633,448 co-occurrences
圆yuán
0.452886 co-occurrences
斗dǒu
0.4511,640 co-occurrences
砌qì
0.449312 co-occurrences
窗chuāng
0.446784 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

拱手让人gǒngshǒuràngrénHSK 7+

to surrender something to someone submissively

phrase
众星拱月zhòngxīnggǒngyuèHSK 7+

to crowd around or revolve around somebody

phrase
打拱作揖dǎgǒngzuòyīHSK 7+

synonym of 打躬作揖

phrase

Showing 3 of 4 idioms containing 拱.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他拱起袖子,开始认真地打扫房间。

tā gǒng qǐ xiù zǐ , kāi shǐ rèn zhēn dì dǎ sǎo fáng jiān .

He rolled up his sleeves and began cleaning the room thoroughly.

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

在杭州市拱墅区的一家电影院里,还藏着一个由影院闲置空间改造而成的电影主题书店。

zài háng zhōu shì gǒng shù qū de yī jiā diàn yǐng yuàn lǐ , hái zàng zhe yī gè yóu yǐng yuàn xián zhì kōng jiān gǎi zào ér chéng de diàn yǐng zhǔ tí shū diàn .

Hidden inside a movie theater in Hangzhou's Gongshu District is a movie-themed bookstore that was converted from an unused space in the theater.

工商時報Apr 2026

台厂重量级法说抬轿!台股势必40K 拱月线最大涨点

tái hǎn chóng liàng jí fǎ shuō tái jiào ! tái gǔ shì bì 4 0 K gǒng yuè xiàn zuì dà zhǎng diǎn

Major Taiwanese firms boost the market with strong earnings reports! The Taiwan Stock Exchange is poised to hit 40,000, driving the monthly line to its highest point

UdnnewsindexApr 2026

土洋力拱黑马强势进击 大联大、兆丰金等获买盘青睐

tǔ yáng lì gǒng hēi mǎ qiáng shì jìn jī dà lián dà , zhào fēng jīn děng huò mǎi pán qīng lài

Domestic and foreign capital propels dark horses to surge forward; Grand Union and Mega Financial Holdings, among others, attract strong buying interest

三立新聞網Mar 2026

被拱选台北市长!贾永婕直球回应了

bèi gǒng xuǎn tái běi shì cháng ! gǔ yǒng 婕 zhí qiú huí yīng le

Nominated for Taipei Mayor! Jia Yongjie Gives a Straightforward Response

弘光科技大學Mar 2026

【施工公告】-L栋北侧3楼外墙壁砖澎拱修缮

shī gōng gōng gào L dòng běi cè 3 lóu wài qiáng bì zhuān péng gǒng xiū 缮

[Construction Notice] – Repair of Bulging Exterior Wall Tiles on the 3rd Floor of the North Side of Building L

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced gǒng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 拱 (gǒng) mean in Chinese?
拱 (gǒng) primarily means "to cup one's hands in salute." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2468 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 拱 and 哄?
拱 (gǒng) and 哄 (hōng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 口 (same 共 component).
How many strokes does 拱 have?
拱 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 拱?
The radical associated with 拱 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 拱?
拱 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 共 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌共 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 拱?
Common words with 拱 include: 拱手 (gǒng shǒu, "to cup one's hands in obeisance or greeting"); 拱门 (gǒng mén, "arched door"); 拱形 (gǒng xíng, "arch"); 拱桥 (gǒng qiáo, "arch bridge"); 拱道 (gǒng dào, "archway"). There are over 35 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 拱 (gǒng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gǒng: 公 (public), 工 (work), 共 (common), 功 (meritorious deed or service), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 拱 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 拱 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 拱 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.