狗 (gǒu): dog, ,條|条

狗 (gǒu) is a Chinese character meaning “dog.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 犭 (semantic) and 句 (phonetic). It ranks #1273 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 狗 dog. Its radical form 犭 (dog) appears in many related characters such as 猫 (māo, cat), 状 (zhuàng, (bound form) form), 猪 (zhū, hog).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. dog
  2. ,條|条

Etymology & Origin

狗

pictophoneticdog

Decomposition: ⿰犭句 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
狗屁noungǒu pìbullshit
热狗nounrè gǒuhot dog (loanword)
走狗nounzǒu gǒuhunting dog
疯狗fēng gǒurabid dog
狗崽子noungǒu zǎi zi(coll.) puppy
猎狗nounliè gǒuhunting dog
狮子狗nounshī zi gǒuPekingese
狗熊noungǒu xióngblack bear
狗东西noungǒu dōng xiscumbag
小狗nounxiǎo gǒupup
狐朋狗友phrasehú péng gǒu yǒua pack of rogues (idiom)
狗肉noungǒu ròudog meat
狗腿子noungǒu tuǐ zidog's leg
哈巴狗nounhǎ bā gǒupekingese (dog)
狼狗nounláng gǒuwolfdog
100
Total compounds
48
As first character
46
As last character
6
As middle character

狗 appears in 100 compound words: 48 as the first character, 46 as the last, and 6 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 狗 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

遛liù
0.569420 co-occurrences
笼lóng
0.54425 co-occurrences
屎shǐ
0.525448 co-occurrences
蝇yíng
0.50712 co-occurrences
咬yǎo
0.483736 co-occurrences
尾wěi
0.47238 co-occurrences
惹rě
0.45529 co-occurrences
仓cāng
0.45325 co-occurrences
幼yòu
0.44723 co-occurrences
猫māo
0.447646 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (32)

阿猫阿狗āmāo'āgǒuHSK 3+

Tom, Dick and Harry; group of people that are ignorant, stupid or unskilled; rabble, a mob

phrase
白衣苍狗báiyī-cānggǒuHSK 7+

freakishness; changeable and strange; changes in human affairs often take freakish forms

phrase
白云苍狗báiyún-cānggǒuHSK 7+

freakishness; changeable and strange; changes in human affairs often take freakish forms

phrase
打落水狗dǎluòshuǐgǒuHSK 4+

to hit an enemy when he is down or defeated

phrase
狗逮老鼠gǒu dǎi lǎo shǔHSK 7+

lit. a dog who catches mice (idiom); fig. to be meddlesome

phrase
狗胆包天gǒu dǎn bāo tiānHSK 5+

extremely daring (idiom); foolhardy

phrase
狗窦大开gǒu dòu dà kāi

dog hole wide open (idiom); fig. gap caused by missing teeth (used mockingly)

phrase
狗苟蝇营gǒu gǒu yíng yíngHSK 7+

see 蠅營狗苟|蝇营狗苟

phrase
狗急跳墙gǒujítiàoqiángHSK 5+

one will take bold risks and desperate actions when forced into desperation

phrase
狗拿耗子gǒu ná hào ziHSK 6+

lit. a dog who catches mice; to be meddlesome (idiom)

phrase
狗皮膏药gǒu pí gāo yaoHSK 4+

dogskin plaster, used in TCM for treating contusions, rheumatism etc; quack medicine; sham goods

phrase
狗屁不通gǒupìbùtōngHSK 7+

incoherent; nonsensical; bullshit

phrase

Showing 12 of 32 idioms containing 狗.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

邻居家养了一只可爱的小狗,经常逗得大家哈哈大笑。

Línjū jiā yǎng le yī zhī kě'ài de xiǎo gǒu, jīngcháng dòu de dàjiā hāhā dà xiào.

The neighbor has a cute little dog that often makes everyone laugh out loud.

EttodayFeb 2026

云林大黄狗被人从5楼丢下“凶手抓到了” 虐狗原因曝...

yún lín dà huáng gǒu bèi rén cóng 5 lóu diū xià xiōng shǒu zhuā dào le nüè gǒu yuán yīn pù . . .

Yunlin big yellow dog was dropped from the 5th floor "The murderer was caught" The reason for the dog abuse was exposed...

三立新聞網Feb 2026

大黄狗遭3楼丢下!肝脏碎裂 民众救援心疼

dà huáng gǒu zāo 3 lóu diū xià ! gān zāng suì liè mín zhòng jiù yuán xīn téng

The big yellow dog was dropped on the 3rd floor! The liver is broken, and the people are distressed

LtnFeb 2026

懒理陈佩琪酸“单身狗” 赖清德合体小英再晒毛小孩

lǎn lǐ chén pèi 琪 suān dān shēn gǒu lài qīng dé gě tǐ xiǎo yīng zài shài máo xiǎo hái

Lazy Chen Peiqi sour "single dog" Lai Qingde combined Xiaoying to dry the furry child again

百度新闻Feb 2026

大型翻车现场!印度大学买中国机器狗充自研,被抓包后..

dà xíng fān chē xiàn chǎng ! yìn dù dà xué mǎi zhōng guó jī qì gǒu chōng zì yán , bèi zhuā bāo hòu . .

Large-scale overturn scene! Indian universities to buy Chinese robotic dogs for self-research, was caught after...

百度新闻Feb 2026

广东一公司发帖“悬赏60万寻狗”,公司负责人称“赏..

guǎng dōng yī gōng sī fā tiē xuán shǎng mò xún gǒu , gōng sī fù zé rén chèn shǎng . .

A company in Guangdong posted a "reward of 600,000 yuan to find the dog", the head of the company said "reward...

Tatoeba

你今天早上喂过狗了吗?

Nǐ jīntiān zǎoshang wèi guo gǒu le ma?

Did you feed the dog this morning?

Tatoeba

当我们离开的时候,谁来照顾狗?

Dāng wǒmen líkāi de shíhou, shéi lái zhàogu gǒu?

Who will take care of the dog while we are away?

Tatoeba

狗子还有佛性也无?

Gǒu zǐ háiyǒu Fóxìng yě wú?

Does a dog have a Buddha-nature or not?

Tatoeba

狗和猫你更喜欢哪一个?

Gǒu hé māo nǐ gèng xǐhuān něiyīge?

Which do you prefer, dogs or cats?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 犭 (dog) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced gǒu

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 狗 (gǒu) mean in Chinese?
狗 (gǒu) primarily means "dog." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1273 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 狗 and 拘?
狗 (gǒu) and 拘 (jū) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 犭 vs 扌 (same 句 component).
How many strokes does 狗 have?
狗 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 狗?
The radical associated with 狗 is 犭 (dog). This radical appears in many characters related to dog.
What are the components of 狗?
狗 is composed of: 犭 (semantic), 句 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰犭句 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 狗?
Common words with 狗 include: 狗屁 (gǒu pì, "bullshit"); 热狗 (rè gǒu, "hot dog (loanword)"); 走狗 (zǒu gǒu, "hunting dog"); 疯狗 (fēng gǒu, "rabid dog"); 狗崽子 (gǒu zǎi zi, "(coll.) puppy"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 狗 (gǒu)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gǒu: 够 (enough (sufficient)), 苟 (surname Gou), 构 ((Tw) (coll.) variant of 夠|够), 购 (to buy), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 狗 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 狗 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 狗 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.