(gōng): to supply, to provide

(gōng) is a Chinese character meaning “to supply, to provide.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #550 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a person 亻 making an offering with both hands 共; 共 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form (person) appears in many related characters such as (rén, person), (shén, what), (jīn, now).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to supply, to provide

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA person 亻 making an offering with both hands 共; 共 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰亻共 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
verbtí gōngto offer4
verbgōng yìngto supply6
verbgōng jǐto furnish6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
zhāo gòngto confess
kǒu gòngoral confession (as opposed to 筆供|笔供[bi3 gong4])
gòng cíconfession
bī gòngto extort a confession
gōng yìng shāngsupplier
gòng rènto confess
gōng huòto supply goods
gōng shuǐto supply water
gōng yǎngto supply
gōng diànto supply electricity
gōng nuǎnto supply heating (in a building)
gòng rèn bù huìto make a full confession
fān gòngto retract a confession or testimony
gòng fèngto consecrate
gòng zhíto hold an office or post
71
Total compounds
58
As first character
25
As last character
17
As middle character

appears in 71 compound words: 58 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 17 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.8261,335,642 co-occurrences
liàn
0.61724 co-occurrences
fèng
0.55975,888 co-occurrences
yīng
0.47572,842 co-occurrences
0.46485,296 co-occurrences
shāng
0.44878,324 co-occurrences
gěi
0.42330,804 co-occurrences
diàn
0.39953,124 co-occurrences
nuǎn
0.3956,324 co-occurrences
le
0.392170,724 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

gōngbùyìngqiúHSK 4+

be in short supply

phrase
gōngguòyúqiúHSK 4+

to have an oversupply; the supply exceeds the demand

phrase
gòngrènbùhuìHSK 7+

to confess everything; to make a full confession; to plead guilty

phrase
jǐngōngcānkǎoHSK 4+

for reference only

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这家应商的产品质量稳定,我们已经合作三年了。

Zhè jiā gōngyìngshāng de chǎnpǐn zhìliàng wěndìng, wǒmen yǐjīng hézuò sān nián le.

This supplier's product quality is stable; we have been cooperating for three years.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

荣誉观护人提曾经毒贩第二人生 获厨艺大奖肯定

róng yù guàn hù rén tí gōng céng jīng dú fàn dì èr rén shēng huò chú yì dà jiǎng kěn dìng

Honorary Guardian Provided Second Life of a former drug dealer and was recognized by the Cooking Award

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

力积电 变身AI应链整合者

lì jī diàn biàn shēn A I gōng yīng liàn zhěng gě zhě

PSMC transforms into an AI supply chain integrator

Investing 香港Feb 2026

国金证券:国内制药应链景气度上行持续 建议把握CXO行业两...

guó jīn zhèng quàn : guó nèi zhì yào gōng yīng liàn jǐng qì dù shàng háng chí xù jiàn yì bǎ wò C X O háng yè liǎng . . .

Guojin Securities: The prosperity of the domestic pharmaceutical supply chain continues to rise, and it is recommended to grasp the CXO industry...

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层丨国网株洲电公司党员突击队护航春节绿色..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng 丨 guó wǎng zhū zhōu gōng diàn gōng sī dǎng yuán tū jī duì hù háng chūn jié lǜ sè . .

New Year to the grassroots丨State Grid Zhuzhou Power Supply Company party member commando escorts the Spring Festival green:

百度新闻Feb 2026

我的新年“特”丨订单翻倍!小碗梨成春节假期“新宠..

wǒ de xīn nián tè gōng 丨 dìng shàn fān bèi ! xiǎo wǎn lí chéng chūn jié jiǎ qī xīn chǒng . .

The new year's special 丨 order doubled! The newest and most popular way to get the most out of the Chinese New Year is to get the most out of the Chinese New Year.

Tatoeba

汤姆拒绝提详细信息。

Tāngmǔ jùjué tígōng xiángxì xìnxī.

Tom declined to give details.

Tatoeba

谁来为风险投资提资金?

Shéi lái wèi fēngxiǎn tóuzī tígōng zījīn?

Who will provide capital for the venture?

Tatoeba

你提任何全日游吗?

Nǐ tígōng rènhé quán rì yóu ma?

Do you offer any all-day tours?

Tatoeba

你们一天提几班飞往纽约的航班?

Nǐmen yī tiān tígōng jǐ bān fēi wǎng Niǔyuē de hángbān?

How many flights to New York do you offer a day?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced gōng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 供 (gōng) mean in Chinese?
供 (gōng) primarily means "to supply, to provide." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #550 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 供 have?
供 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 供?
The radical associated with 供 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 供?
供 is composed of: 亻 (structural), 共 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻共 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 供?
Common words with 供 include: 提供 (tí gōng, "to offer"); 供应 (gōng yìng, "to supply"); 招供 (zhāo gòng, "to confess"); 口供 (kǒu gòng, "oral confession (as opposed to 筆供|笔供[bi3 gong4])"); 供给 (gōng jǐ, "to furnish"). There are over 71 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 供 (gōng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gōng: 工 (work), 弓 (a bow (weapon)), 公 (public), 功 (meritorious deed or service), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 供 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 供 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.