(guó): country, nation, state, (bound form) national

(guó) is a Chinese character meaning “country.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #20 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, treasure 玉 within a country's borders 囗. Its radical form (enclosure) appears in many related characters such as (, four), (huí, to circle), (, diagram).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. country
  2. nation
  3. state
  4. (bound form) national

Etymology & Origin

ideographicTreasure 玉 within a country's borders 囗

Decomposition: ⿴囗玉 (layout: full-surround)

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

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
guó jiācountry3
zhōng guóChina1
guó jìinternational5
wài guóforeign country3

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
fǎ guóFrance
dé guóGermany
é guóRussia
dì guóempire
guó huìParliament (UK)
guó nèidomestic
guó mínnationals
guó dùcountry
chū guóto go abroad
guó ānnational security (abbr. for 國家安全|国家安全[guo2 jia1 an1 quan2])
ài guóto love one's country
guó qíflag (of a country)
guó fángnational defense
guó gēnational anthem
gè guóeach country
100
Total compounds
66
As first character
34
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 66 as the first character, 34 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.

0.670714,861 co-occurrences
měi
0.5971,428,788 co-occurrences
hán
0.583248,174 co-occurrences
zhōng
0.5813,162,496 co-occurrences
jiā
0.5761,591,104 co-occurrences
mín
0.5581,221,048 co-occurrences
0.5421,169,610 co-occurrences
yīng
0.522638,196 co-occurrences
0.513215,436 co-occurrences
gòng
0.506639,474 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (76)

ài guó rú jiāHSK 3+

to love one's country as one's own family (praise for a virtuous ruler)

phrase
ānbāngdìngguóHSK 7+

to bring peace and stability to a country

phrase
bìguānsuǒguóHSK 5+

to cut off one's country from the outside world

phrase
bìng guó yāng mínHSK 7+

to damage the country and cause suffering to the people (idiom)

phrase
bìng mín hài guóHSK 4+

to damage the people and harm the country (idiom)

phrase
Chūnqiū ZhànguóHSK 5+

Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period of China

Dàhán DìguóHSK 7+

Korean Empire

Dàhán MínguóHSK 7+

Republic of Korea (official name of South Korea: a country in East Asia)

Dàqīng DìguóHSK 6+

the Qing dynasty (1644-1911)

Dàyīng DìguóHSK 6+

the British Empire

Dàyīng GuóxiéHSK 6+

Commonwealth of Nations; British Commonwealth

Dìguó DàshàHSK 6+

Empire State Building

Showing 12 of 76 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

庆节期间,全各地都举行了丰富多彩的庆祝活动。

Guóqìng Jié qījiān, quánguó gèdì dōu jǔxíng le fēngfù duōcǎi de qìngzhù huódòng.

During the National Day holiday, colorful celebration activities were held throughout the country.

百度新闻Feb 2026

你还是曾经那个少年!苏翊鸣斩获中队首金

nǐ hái shì céng jīng nā gě shǎo nián ! sū 翊 míng zhǎn huò zhōng guó duì shǒu jīn

You're still the same teenager! Su Yiming wins China's first gold.

百度新闻Feb 2026

冬奥会|全天综合:中速滑再迎突破 中井亚美领跑花..

dōng ào huì quán tiān zèng gě zhōng guó sù huá zài yíng tū pò zhōng jǐng yà měi lǐng pǎo huā . .

Winter Olympics|All Day Roundup: China's speed skating breaks through again, and Ami Nakai leads the way in flower...

百度新闻Feb 2026

12月营建许可总数录得144.8万户,为...

měi guó yuè yíng jiàn xǔ kě zǒng shǔ lù dé . mò hù , wéi . . .

U.S. building permits totaled 1.448 million in December, a...

百度新闻Feb 2026

在春晚与沈腾马丽同框的机器人 在全100多个地方..

zài chūn wǎn yú 沈 téng mǎ lí tóng kuàng de jī qì rén zài quán guó duō gě dì fāng . .

The robot that shared the frame with Shen Teng and Ma Li at the Spring Festival Gala In more than 100 places across the country...

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层·驻外记者回乡手记丨在中,感受火箭一飞..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng zhù wài jì zhě huí xiāng shǒu jì 丨 zài zhōng guó , gǎn shòu huǒ jiàn yī fēi . .

The new year is the first time that a foreign correspondent has returned to his hometown....

Tatoeba

你是从哪个家来的?

Nǐ shì cóng nǎge guójiā lái de?

What country are you from?

Tatoeba

你打算在这个家待多久?

Nǐ dǎsuàn zài zhège guójiā dāi duōjiǔ?

How long do you plan to stay in this country?

Tatoeba

你会去访问其他家吗?

Nǐ huì qù fǎngwèn qítā guójiā ma?

Are you going to visit any other countries?

Tatoeba

你是美人还是法人?

Nǐ shì Měiguórén háishi Fǎguórén?

Are you American or French?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced guó

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 国 (guó) mean in Chinese?
国 (guó) primarily means "country." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #20 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 国 have?
国 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 国?
The radical associated with 国 is 囗 (enclosure). This radical appears in many characters related to enclosure.
What are the components of 国?
国 is composed of: 囗 (structural), 玉 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿴囗玉 with a full-surround layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 国?
Common words with 国 include: 国家 (guó jiā, "country"); 法国 (fǎ guó, "France"); 中国 (zhōng guó, "China"); 德国 (dé guó, "Germany"); 国际 (guó jì, "international"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 国 (guó)?
Several characters share the pronunciation guó: 郭 (outer city wall), 锅 (pot), 果 (fruit, result), 裹 (to wrap around), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 国 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 国 and the traditional form is 國.

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.