骨 (gǔ): bone

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

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. bone

Etymology & Origin

骨

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 骨

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
骨头noungǔ toubone6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
骨折verbgǔ zhéto suffer a fracture
头骨tóu gǔskull
肋骨nounlèi gǔrib
骨灰noungǔ huībone ash
骨髓noungǔ suǐbone marrow
排骨nounpái gǔpork chop
骨骼noungǔ gébones
骨架noungǔ jiàframework
尸骨nounshī gǔskeleton of the dead
骨子里gǔ zi lǐbeneath the surface
胸骨nounxiōng gǔsternum
锁骨nounsuǒ gǔcollarbone
骨气noungǔ qìunyielding character
椎骨nounzhuī gǔvertebra
骨肉noungǔ ròublood relation
107
Total compounds
39
As first character
60
As last character
1
As middle character

骨 appears in 107 compound words: 39 as the first character, 60 as the last, and 1 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 骨 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

骼gé
0.74015,383 co-occurrences
髓suǐ
0.5503,516 co-occurrences
折zhé
0.5349,193 co-occurrences
盆pén
0.5272,950 co-occurrences
灰huī
0.5116,319 co-occurrences
椎zhuī
0.5053,869 co-occurrences
脊jǐ
0.5042,656 co-occurrences
眶kuàng
0.496642 co-occurrences
拄zhǔ
0.478156 co-occurrences
肌jī
0.4742,088 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (29)

哀毁骨立āihuǐgǔlìHSK 7+

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

phrase
冰肌玉骨bīng jī yù gǔHSK 6+

(idiom) (of a woman) having fair, flawless skin and a graceful, refined beauty

phrase
戳脊梁骨chuō jǐlianggǔHSK 7+

to speak ill of someone behind their back; to backbite

verb
粉身碎骨fěnshēn-suìgǔHSK 6+

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

phrase
钢骨水泥gāng gǔ shuǐ níHSK 6+

reinforced concrete

phrase
骨肉相残gǔ ròu xiāng cánHSK 6+

close kindred slaughter one another (idiom); internecine strife

phrase
骨瘦如柴gǔshòurúcháiHSK 6+

as thin as a stick; emaciated; unhealthily skinny

phrase
骨髓移植gǔsuǐ yízhíHSK 7+

bone marrow transplantation

noun
寒风刺骨hán fēng cì gǔHSK 6+

bone chilling wind (idiom)

phrase
恨之入骨hènzhīrùgǔHSK 6+

to hate to the bone; to hate deeply

phrase
甲状软骨jiǎzhuàng ruǎngǔHSK 6+

thyroid cartilage

noun
镌心铭骨juān xīn míng gǔ

etched in one's bones and heart (idiom); ever-present memory (esp. resentment)

phrase

Showing 12 of 29 idioms containing 骨.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

老师教我们骨字的发音和笔顺。

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 唯独一骨干成员无影

. . . 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出骨灰罐蓝牙音箱

. . . 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 软体股甲骨文苏醒飙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:不要化骨绵掌 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

甲骨文股价因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

祖母的骨灰是在骨灰瓮在寺院。

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,该头骨被重击碎裂。

Zǐxì jiǎnchá hòu fāxiàn, gāi tóugǔ bèi zhòngjī suìliè.

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

Tatoeba

我被鱼骨刺到了喉咙。

Wǒ bèi yúgǔ cì dào le hóulóng.

I got a fish bone stuck in my throat.

Tatoeba

我外婆患有骨质疏松症。

Wǒ wàipó huànyǒu gǔzhìshūsōngzhèng.

My grandmother suffers from osteoporosis.

Character Family

骨 Radical Family — Characters sharing the bone radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced gǔ

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"); 头骨 (tóu gǔ, "skull"); 肋骨 (lèi gǔ, "rib"); 骨灰 (gǔ huī, "bone ash"). There are over 107 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 骨 (gǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation gǔ: 故 (happening), 古 (ancient), 股 (thigh), 顾 (to look after), 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 骨 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.