(): abbr. for Tianjin 天津 (also 津沽), to buy, to sell

() is a Chinese character meaning “abbr. for tianjin 天津 (also 津沽).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2922 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, water. Its radical form (water) appears in many related characters such as (shuǐ, water), (hàn, Han ethnic group), (, steam).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. abbr. for Tianjin 天津 (also 津沽)
  2. to buy
  3. to sell

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵古 (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

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
dài jià ér gūto sell only for a good price (idiom)
gū míng diào yùto angle for fame (idiom)
dà gū kǒu pào táiTaku Forts, maritime defense works in Tianjin dating back to the Ming dynasty, playing a prominent role during the Op...
dà gū pào táiTaku Forts, maritime defense works in Tianjin dating back to the Ming dynasty, playing a prominent role during the Op...
hàn gū qūHangu former district of Tianjin, now part of Binhai subprovincial district 濱海新區|滨海新区[Bin1 hai3 xin1 qu1]
gū yuán xiànGuyuan, a county in Zhangjiakou City 張家口市|张家口市[Zhang1 jia1 kou3 Shi4], Hebei
gū yuánsee 沽源縣|沽源县[Gu1 yuan2 Xian4]
táng gū qūTanggu former district of Tianjin, now part of Binhai subprovincial district 濱海新區|滨海新区[Bin1 hai3 xin1 qu1]
hàn gūHangu former district of Tianjin, now part of Binhai subprovincial district 濱海新區|滨海新区[Bin1 hai3 xin1 qu1]
lú gū húLugu Lake, alpine lake on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan
jīn gūanother name for Tianjin 天津
táng gūTanggu former district of Tianjin, now part of Binhai subprovincial district 濱海新區|滨海新区[Bin1 hai3 xin1 qu1]
12
Total compounds
25
As first character
33
As last character
42
As middle character

appears in 12 compound words: 25 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 42 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.

táng
0.5833,504 co-occurrences
hēi
0.539234 co-occurrences
jīn
0.4611,788 co-occurrences
yuán
0.43112 co-occurrences
xián
0.425486 co-occurrences
diào
0.409108 co-occurrences
0.3951,290 co-occurrences
hàn
0.392912 co-occurrences
0.3502,526 co-occurrences
0.3495,472 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

dàijià'érgūHSK 7+

to wait for the highest bid before selling an item; to wait for the best job offer before providing one's service

phrase
gūmíngdiàoyùHSK 7+

to angle for fame; to fish for compliments

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这条流经三个省份,滋养了沿岸的农田。

zhè tiáo gū liú jīng sān gě shěng fèn , zī yǎng le yán àn de nóng tián .

This river flows through three provinces, nourishing the farmland along its banks.

EdigestFeb 2026

货都要交税?荷兰“空手抽白刃”狠征 36...

wèi gū huò dōu yāo jiāo shuì ? hé lán kōng shǒu chōu bái 刃 hěn zhēng 3 6 . . .

Do you have to pay taxes before selling? The Netherlands "draws a white blade empty-handed" and conquers 36...

EtnetFeb 2026

...北水炒D乜】净流出73.66亿元,买美团中海油

. . . běi shuǐ chǎo D 乜 jìng liú chū 7 3 . 6 6 yì yuán , mǎi měi tuán gū zhōng hǎi yóu

... Beishui speculated on what to do] with a net outflow of 7.366 billion yuan, buying Meituan and selling CNOOC

EtnetFeb 2026

...北水炒D乜】净流出40.57亿元,买腾讯盈富基金

. . . běi shuǐ chǎo D 乜 jìng liú chū 4 0 . 5 7 yì yuán , mǎi téng xùn gū yíng fù jī jīn

... Beishui speculated on what to do] with a net outflow of 4.057 billion yuan, buying Tencent and selling Tracker Fund

EtnetFeb 2026

...乜】净流入31.31亿元,买南方恒生科技泡泡玛特

. . . 乜 jìng liú rù 3 1 . 3 1 yì yuán , mǎi nán fāng héng shēng kē jì gū pāo pāo 玛 tè

... What] net inflow of 3.131 billion yuan, buying Southern Hang Seng Technology and selling Bubble Mart

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

“滶晨II”马年首周末2伙 套现近2700万元

滶 chén I I mǎ nián shǒu zhōu mò gū 2 huǒ tào xiàn jìn 2 7 0 0 wàn yuán

"Luchen II" sold 2 units on the first weekend of the Year of the Horse and cashed out nearly 27 million yuan

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 沽 (gū) mean in Chinese?
沽 (gū) primarily means "abbr. for tianjin 天津 (also 津沽)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2922 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 沽 and 销?
沽 (gū) and 销 (xiāo) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 沽 (buy) vs 销 (sell).
How many strokes does 沽 have?
沽 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 沽?
The radical associated with 沽 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 沽?
沽 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 古 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵古 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 沽?
Common words with 沽 include: 待价而沽 (dài jià ér gū, "to sell only for a good price (idiom)"); 沽名钓誉 (gū míng diào yù, "to angle for fame (idiom)"); 大沽口炮台 (dà gū kǒu pào tái, "Taku Forts, maritime defense works in Tianjin dating back to the Ming dynasty, playing a prominent role during the Op..."); 大沽炮台 (dà gū pào tái, "Taku Forts, maritime defense works in Tianjin dating back to the Ming dynasty, playing a prominent role during the Op..."); 汉沽区 (hàn gū qū, "Hangu former district of Tianjin, now part of Binhai subprovincial district 濱海新區|滨海新区[Bin1 hai3 xin1 qu1]"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 沽 (gū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gū: 估 (to estimate), 咕 ((onom.) for the sound of a bird, an empty stomach etc), 辜 (crime), 固 (hard), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 沽 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 沽 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.