贡 (gòng): to offer tribute, tribute, gifts

贡 (gòng) is a Chinese character meaning “to offer tribute.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 工 (phonetic) and 贝 (semantic). It ranks #1538 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 贡 money. Its radical form 贝 (shell) appears in many related characters such as 贵 (guì, expensive), 负 (fù, to bear), 责 (zé, responsibility).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to offer tribute
  2. tribute
  3. gifts

Etymology & Origin

贡

pictophoneticmoney

Decomposition: ⿱工贝 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 贡

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
贡献verb/noungòng xiànto contribute5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
西贡proper-nounxī gòngSaigon, capital of former South Vietnam
贡品noungòng pǐntribute
进贡verbjìn gòngto present tribute (to a suzerain, the emperor etc)
贡高我慢gòng gāo wǒ mànhaughty and arrogant
自贡市zì gòng shìZigong, prefecture-level city in Sichuan Province 四川省
贡多拉noungòng duō lā(loanword) gondola (Venetian canal boat)
贡都拉gòng dōu lāsee 貢多拉|贡多拉
贡山独龙族怒族自治县gòng shān dú lóng zú nù zú zì zhì xiànGongshan Derung and Nu Autonomous County, in Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture 怒江傈僳族自治州[Nu4 jiang1 Li4 su4 zu2 Zi4 z...
理论贡献lǐ lùn gòng xiàntheoretical contribution
上贡verbshàng gòngto present tribute (to a suzerain, the emperor etc)
子贡zǐ gòngZi Gong or Duanmu Ci 端木賜|端木赐 (520 BC-), disciple of Confucius
贡生noungòng shēngcandidate for the Imperial Examination proposed by a tributary state
自贡proper-nounzì gòngsee 自貢市|自贡市
贡国gòng guótributary state of China (old)
章贡区zhāng gòng qūZhanggong, a district of Ganzhou City 贛州市|赣州市, Jiangxi
40
Total compounds
57
As first character
28
As last character
15
As middle character

贡 appears in 40 compound words: 57 as the first character, 28 as the last, and 15 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 贡 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

献xiàn
0.71236,958 co-occurrences
渔yú
0.51010 co-occurrences
杰jié
0.4562,192 co-occurrences
突tū
0.4393,248 co-occurrences
做zuò
0.4283,140 co-occurrences
朝cháo
0.3953,148 co-occurrences
奖jiǎng
0.3911,868 co-occurrences
卓zhuó
0.390815 co-occurrences
出chū
0.38812,892 co-occurrences
巨jù
0.3841,304 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个贡字的意思与它的部首有关。

zhè gě gòng zì de yì sī yú tā de bù shǒu yǒu guān .

The meaning of the character "贡" is related to its radical.

風傳媒Feb 2026

...股还是减码?专家点名护国群山:光6档就可贡献指数38000点

. . . gǔ hái shì jiǎn mǎ ? zhuān jiā diǎn míng hù guó qún shān : guāng 6 dàng jiù kě gòng xiàn zhǐ shǔ 3 8 0 0 0 diǎn

... Stocks or reductions? Experts named the mountains to protect the country: only 6 gears can contribute 38,000 points to the index

中国军网Feb 2026

军事论坛丨提升军事理论对战斗力的贡献率

jūn shì lùn tán 丨 tí shēng jūn shì lǐ lùn duì zhàn dǒu lì de gòng xiàn lǜ

Military Forum丨Improve the contribution rate of military theory to combat effectiveness

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

法国罗浮宫馆长德卡尔请辞 马克龙感谢对方贡献

fǎ guó luó fú gōng guǎn cháng dé kǎ ěr qǐng cí mǎ kè lóng gǎn xiè duì fāng gòng xiàn

De Cartes, director of the Louvre Museum in France, resigned Macron thanked the other party for his contributions

Hk01.comFeb 2026

古天乐现身演协春茗送惊喜 刘江演艺贡献获表扬:我未够资格

gǔ tiān lè xiàn shēn yǎn xié chūn 茗 sòng jīng xǐ liú jiāng yǎn yì gòng xiàn huò biǎo yáng : wǒ wèi gòu zī gé

Louis Koo appeared in the Spring Tea of the Acting Association to send a surprise Liu Jiang's acting contribution was praised: I am not qualified enough

English News - RthkFeb 2026

渔护署:西贡东郊野公园景点及露营地点秩序及卫生与预计...

yú hù shǔ : xī gòng dōng jiāo yě gōng yuán jǐng diǎn jí lù yíng dì diǎn zhì xù jí wèi shēng yǔ yù jì . . .

AFCD: Sai Kung East Country Park Attractions and Camping Sites Order, Hygiene and Forecast...

Tatoeba

你会说克林贡语吗?

Nǐ huì shuō Kèlíngòng yǔ ma?

Do you speak Klingon?

Tatoeba

我将会努力作贡献的!

Wǒ jiānghuì nǔlì zuò gòngxiàn de!

I will work hard to contribute!

Tatoeba

他为经济发展作了很多贡献。

Tā wèi jīngjìfāzhǎn zuò le hěn duō gòngxiàn.

He contributed much to the development of the economy.

Tatoeba

每个人都有能力作贡献。

Měigerén dōu yǒunénglì zuò gòngxiàn.

And everyone has the ability to contribute.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 贝 (money) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced gòng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 贡 (gòng) mean in Chinese?
贡 (gòng) primarily means "to offer tribute." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1538 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 贡 and 经?
贡 (gòng) and 经 (jīng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 贝 vs 纟 (same 工 component).
How many strokes does 贡 have?
贡 is written with 7 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 贡?
The radical associated with 贡 is 贝 (shell). This radical appears in many characters related to shell.
What are the components of 贡?
贡 is composed of: 工 (phonetic), 贝 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱工贝 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 贡?
Common words with 贡 include: 贡献 (gòng xiàn, "to contribute"); 西贡 (xī gòng, "Saigon, capital of former South Vietnam"); 贡品 (gòng pǐn, "tribute"); 进贡 (jìn gòng, "to present tribute (to a suzerain, the emperor etc)"); 贡高我慢 (gòng gāo wǒ màn, "haughty and arrogant"). There are over 40 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 贡 (gòng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gòng: 攻 (to attack), 巩 ((bound form) to fix in place). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 贡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 贡 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 贡 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.