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

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

Etymologically derived, roof. Its radical form (roof) appears in many related characters such as (, guest, customer), (jiā, home, family), (, it).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticroof

Decomposition: ⿱宀吕 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
bái gōngWhite House
zǐ gōnguterus
殿gōng diànpalace
mí gōngmaze
huáng gōngimperial palace
gōng tíngcourt (of king or emperor)
gōng nǚpalace maid
wáng gōngimperial palace
lú fú gōngthe Louvre, museum in Paris
hòu gōngharem
kè lǐ mǔ lín gōngthe Kremlin
nán gōngtwo-character surname Nangong
tiān gōngTemple in Heaven (e.g. of the Jade Emperor)
dǎ rù lěng gōng(idiom) to snub
èr jìn gōngname of a famous opera
100
Total compounds
27
As first character
53
As last character
20
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 27 as the first character, 53 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

qiāng
0.73414 co-occurrences
殿diàn
0.58234,998 co-occurrences
tíng
0.54927,852 co-occurrences
jūn
0.52511 co-occurrences
qǐn
0.5082,562 co-occurrences
jǐng
0.4792,364 co-occurrences
寿shòu
0.4585,490 co-occurrences
shēng
0.44117 co-occurrences
huáng
0.43717,790 co-occurrences
mèng
0.4354,020 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (9)

Àilìshě GōngHSK 6+

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

Báijīnhàn GōngHSK 6+

Buckingham Palace

Bùdálā GōngHSK 6+

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

dǎ rù lěng gōngHSK 6+

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

phrase
Fán'ěrsài GōngHSK 6+

Palace of Versailles

Gōngbǎo jīdīngHSK 7+

Kung Pao chicken

noun
Gōngbào jīdīngHSK 7+

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

noun
zǐgōngjǐng'áiHSK 7+

cervical cancer

noun
chángōngzhéguìHSK 7+

to pass the imperial examination

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

学习字需要反复练习,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“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

他出生在一个殿里,那殿已经不存在了。

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

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

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

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: 工 (work), 弓 (a bow (weapon)), 公 (public), 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 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.