柜 (guì): cupboard, cabinet, wardrobe

柜 (guì) is a Chinese character meaning “cupboard.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 木 (semantic) and 巨 (phonetic). It ranks #1967 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 柜 wood. Its radical form 木 (tree) appears in many related characters such as 本 (běn, (bound form) root), 机 (jī, machine, opportunity), 条 (tiáo, strip).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. cupboard
  2. cabinet
  3. wardrobe

Etymology & Origin

柜

pictophoneticwood

Decomposition: ⿰木巨 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 柜

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
柜子nounguì zicupboard5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
衣柜nounyī guìwardrobe
柜台nounguì táivariant of 櫃檯|柜台
保险柜nounbǎo xiǎn guìa safe
橱柜nounchú guìcupboard
床头柜nounchuáng tóu guìbedside cabinet
冰柜nounbīng guìfreezer
货柜nounhuò guìcounter for the display of goods
碗柜nounwǎn guìcupboard
翻箱倒柜verbfān xiāng dǎo guìto overturn trunks and boxes
柜员nounguì yuánteller
专柜nounzhuān guìsales counter dedicated to a certain kind of product (e.g. alcohol)
书柜nounshū guìbookcase
雪柜nounxuě guìicebox
货柜车nounhuò guì chē(Tw) container truck
掌柜nounzhǎng guìshopkeeper
45
Total compounds
13
As first character
71
As last character
16
As middle character

柜 appears in 45 compound words: 13 as the first character, 71 as the last, and 16 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 柜 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

橱chú
0.620260 co-occurrences
屉tì
0.48716 co-occurrences
掌zhǎng
0.455502 co-occurrences
储chǔ
0.446238 co-occurrences
衣yī
0.434486 co-occurrences
货huò
0.423337 co-occurrences
磁cí
0.405176 co-occurrences
台tái
0.3921,576 co-occurrences
按àn
0.386328 co-occurrences
递dì
0.38478 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

翻箱倒柜fānxiāngdǎoguìHSK 5+

to overturn trunks and boxes, to make a thorough search

verb
甩手掌柜shuǎi shǒu zhǎng guìHSK 7+

lit. arm-flinging shopkeeper; fig. sb who asks others to work but does nothing himself

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请把文件放进柜子里,不要乱扔在桌上。

Qǐng bǎ wénjiàn fàng jìn guìzi lǐ, bùyào luàn rēng zài zhuō shàng.

Please put the documents in the cabinet; don't leave them scattered on the desk.

NewsFeb 2026

AI浪潮下,又是哪家上市柜企业进驻新庄副都心?

làng cháo xià , yòu shì nǎ jiā shàng shì guì qǐ yè jìn zhù xīn zhuāng fù dōu xīn ?

Under the wave of AI, which listed company has entered the Xinzhuang sub-city?

NewsFeb 2026

餐厅女员工陈尸冰柜 业者悲痛发声:警方已排除与职场有关

cān tīng nǚ yuán gōng chén shī bīng guì yè zhě bēi tòng fā shēng jǐng fāng yǐ pái chú yǔ zhí chǎng yǒu guān

The female employee of the restaurant is in the freezer The operator spoke out in grief: The police have ruled out that it is related to the workplace

NewsFeb 2026

悚!知名餐厅女员工陈尸冰柜 生前欠债、心情低落

悚 ! zhī míng cān tīng nǚ yuán gōng chén shī bīng guì shēng qián qiàn zhài xīn qíng dī luò

Scary! Chen Shi Freezer, a female employee of a well-known restaurant, owed debts and was depressed during her lifetime

NewsFeb 2026

亚洲赴美海路货柜 上月172万个跌7%

yà zhōu fù měi hǎi lù huò guì shàng yuè wàn gè diē

Asia's sea containers to the United States fell 7% from 1.72 million last month

NewsFeb 2026

虚拟三地大鼎展柜 揭博物馆政治

xū nǐ sān dì dà dǐng zhǎn guì jiē bó wù guǎn zhèng zhì

The virtual three-place Dading display cabinet reveals the politics of the museum

Tatoeba

汤姆把夹克挂在大厅衣柜里。

Tāngmǔ bǎ jiākè guà zài dàtīng yīguì lǐ.

Tom hung his jacket in the hall closet.

Tatoeba

我可以在哪个柜台预约?

Wǒ kěyǐ zài nǎge guìtái yùyuē?

On which counter can I make my appointment?

Tatoeba

请在这个柜位付款。

Qǐng zài zhège guì wèi fùkuǎn.

Please pay at this counter.

Tatoeba

书从柜子上掉下来。

Shū cóng guìzi shàng diàoxià lái.

The book fell from the cabinet.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 木 (wood) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced guì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 柜 (guì) mean in Chinese?
柜 (guì) primarily means "cupboard." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1967 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 柜 and 拒?
柜 (guì) and 拒 (jù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 木 vs 扌 (same 巨 component).
How many strokes does 柜 have?
柜 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 柜?
The radical associated with 柜 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 柜?
柜 is composed of: 木 (semantic), 巨 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰木巨 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 柜?
Common words with 柜 include: 柜子 (guì zi, "cupboard"); 衣柜 (yī guì, "wardrobe"); 柜台 (guì tái, "variant of 櫃檯|柜台"); 保险柜 (bǎo xiǎn guì, "a safe"); 橱柜 (chú guì, "cupboard"). There are over 45 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 柜 (guì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation guì: 规 (compass), 贵 (expensive), 归 (to return), 鬼 (disembodied spirit), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 柜 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 柜 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 柜 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.