(): bone

() is a Chinese character meaning “bone.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1035 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, flesh ⺼ and bones 冎. Its radical form (bone) appears in many related characters such as (suǐ, (bound form) bone marrow).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. bone

Etymology & Origin

ideographicFlesh ⺼ and bones 冎

Decomposition: ⿵冎⺼ (layout: surround-from-top)

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

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
noungǔ toubone6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
gǔ zhéto suffer a fracture
lèi gǔrib
gǔ huībone ash
gǔ suǐbone marrow
pái gǔpork chop
gǔ gébones
gǔ jiàframework
gǔ qìunyielding character
gǔ ròublood relation
quán gǔzygomatic bone (cheek bone)
lú gǔskull (of a dead body)
gǔ pénpelvis
ruǎn gǔcartilage
hái gǔskeleton
jìng gǔtibia
100
Total compounds
44
As first character
56
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 44 as the first character, 56 as the last, and 0 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.

0.78946,122 co-occurrences
suǐ
0.62010,536 co-occurrences
zhé
0.56727,505 co-occurrences
chuí
0.55811,598 co-occurrences
pén
0.5358,850 co-occurrences
huī
0.53218,916 co-occurrences
0.5117,968 co-occurrences
kuàng
0.5031,926 co-occurrences
zhǔ
0.485468 co-occurrences
0.4816,264 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (28)

āihuǐgǔlìHSK 7+

to be emaciated with grief at one's parents' death

phrase
chuō jǐlianggǔHSK 7+

to speak ill of someone behind their back; to backbite

verb
fěnshēn-suìgǔHSK 6+

to have one's body smashed to pieces; to die the most cruel death

phrase
gāng gǔ shuǐ níHSK 6+

reinforced concrete

phrase
gǔ ròu xiāng cánHSK 6+

close kindred slaughter one another (idiom); internecine strife

phrase
gǔshòurúcháiHSK 6+

as thin as a stick; emaciated; unhealthily skinny

phrase
gǔsuǐ yízhíHSK 7+

bone marrow transplantation

noun
hán fēng cì gǔHSK 6+

bone chilling wind (idiom)

phrase
hènzhīrùgǔHSK 6+

to hate to the bone; to hate deeply

phrase
jiǎzhuàng ruǎngǔHSK 6+

thyroid cartilage

noun
kègǔmíngxīnHSK 7+

unforgettable; etched in one's memory

phrase
qiè gǔ zhī chóuHSK 7+

bitter hatred; hatred that cuts to the bone

phrase

Showing 12 of 28 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们字的发音和笔顺。

lǎo shī jiào wǒ men gū zì de fā yīn hé bǐ shùn .

The teacher taught us the pronunciation and stroke order of the character "骨."

Hk01.comFeb 2026

...靖琪43岁生日七魔女团拜带埋老公 唯独一干成员无影

. . . 靖 琪 4 3 suì shēng rì qī mó nǚ tuán bài dài mái lǎo gōng wéi dú yī gǔ gān chéng yuán wú yǐng

... Jingqi's 43rd birthday, the Seven Witches group buried her husband, but one backbone member was nowhere to be found

News For ChineseFeb 2026

...potify与Liquid Death出灰罐蓝牙音箱

. . . p o t i f y yǔ L i q u i d D e a t h chū gǔ huī guàn lán yá yīn xiāng

... potify and Liquid Death released an urn Bluetooth speaker

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...辉达股价起飞!财报开奖全球关注 软体股甲文苏醒飙5%

. . . huī dá gǔ jià qǐ fēi ! cái bào kāi jiǎng quán qiú guān zhù ruǎn tǐ gǔ jiǎ gǔ wén sū xǐng biāo 5

... Nvidia's stock price took off! The global attention of the financial report lottery is the software stock oracle wakes up by 5%

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

茶叙妙语...韩国瑜:不要化绵掌 赖清德:专长止咳化痰

chá xù miào yǔ . . . hán guó 瑜 : bù yāo huà gǔ mián zhǎng lài qīng dé : zhuān cháng zhǐ hāi huà tán

Tea narrative punchline... Han Guoyu: Don't turn bones into cotton palms Lai Qingde: Specialize in relieving cough and phlegm

InvestingFeb 2026

文股价因Stargate项目担忧而下跌

jiǎ gǔ wén gǔ jià yīn S t a r g a t e xiàng mù dān yōu ér xià diē

Oracle shares fell on Stargate project concerns

Tatoeba

祖母的灰是在灰瓮在寺院。

Zǔmǔ de gǔhuī shì zài gǔhuī wèng zài sìyuàn.

Grandmother's ashes are in an urn at the temple.

Tatoeba

仔细检查后发现,该头被重击碎裂。

Zǐxì jiǎnchá hòu fāxiàn, gāi tóugǔ bèi zhòngjī suìliè.

After careful examination, it can be seen that the skull was smashed to pieces.

Tatoeba

我被鱼刺到了喉咙。

Wǒ bèi yúgǔ cì dào le hóulóng.

I got a fish bone stuck in my throat.

Tatoeba

我外婆患有质疏松症。

Wǒ wàipó huànyǒu gǔzhìshūsōngzhèng.

My grandmother suffers from osteoporosis.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the bone radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 骨 (gǔ) mean in Chinese?
骨 (gǔ) primarily means "bone." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1035 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 骨 have?
骨 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 骨?
The radical associated with 骨 is 骨 (bone). This radical appears in many characters related to bone.
What are the components of 骨?
骨 is composed of: 冎 (structural), ⺼ (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿵冎⺼ with a surround-from-top layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 骨?
Common words with 骨 include: 骨头 (gǔ tou, "bone"); 骨折 (gǔ zhé, "to suffer a fracture"); 肋骨 (lèi gǔ, "rib"); 骨灰 (gǔ huī, "bone ash"); 骨髓 (gǔ suǐ, "bone marrow"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 骨 (gǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gǔ: 估 (to estimate), 姑 (aunt), 孤 (lone), 古 (ancient), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 骨 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 骨 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.