抗 (kàng): to resist, to fight, to defy

抗 (kàng) is a Chinese character meaning “to resist.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (structural) and 亢 (structural). It ranks #766 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 抗 fighting 亢 with bare hands 扌; 亢 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 打 (dǎ, hit, make), 找 (zhǎo, to look for).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to resist
  2. to fight
  3. to defy

Etymology & Origin

抗

ideographicFighting 亢 with bare hands 扌; 亢 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰扌亢 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 抗

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
对抗verbduì kàngto withstand6
抵抗verbdǐ kàngto resist6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
反抗verbfǎn kàngto resist
抗议verbkàng yìto protest
抗拒verbkàng jùto resist
抗争verbkàng zhēngto resist
抗生素nounkàng shēng sùantibiotic
违抗verbwéi kàngto disobey
抗体nounkàng tǐ(immunology) antibody
抗辩verbkàng biànto counter accusations
抗衡verbkàng héngto compete with
抗原nounkàng yuán(immunology) antigen
抗癌verbkàng áianti-cancer
抵抗力noundǐ kàng lìresistance
对抗赛duì kàng sàiduel
抗命kàng mìngagainst orders
抗击verbkàng jīto resist (an aggressor)
90
Total compounds
70
As first character
9
As last character
21
As middle character

抗 appears in 90 compound words: 70 as the first character, 9 as the last, and 21 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 抗 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

抵dǐ
0.57340,937 co-occurrences
议yì
0.53430,662 co-occurrences
反fǎn
0.50632,426 co-occurrences
战zhàn
0.49526,150 co-occurrences
顽wán
0.4931,068 co-occurrences
争zhēng
0.48512,322 co-occurrences
衡héng
0.4645,322 co-occurrences
对duì
0.43823,968 co-occurrences
疫yì
0.4214,112 co-occurrences
拒jù
0.4204,921 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

不可抗拒bùkě kàngjùHSK 6+

irresistible

adjective
不可抗力bùkěkànglìHSK 6+

force majeure; act of God

noun
分庭抗礼fēntíngkànglǐHSK 6+

to stand up (to someone) as an equal; to function as rivals

phrase
抗美援朝kàngměiyuáncháoHSK 6+

Korean War (1950–1953); China's intervention in the Korean War

抗凝血剂kàng níng xuè jìHSK 7+

anticoagulant

phrase
抗日战争Kàngrì ZhànzhēngHSK 6+

Second Sino-Japanese War; War of Resistance against Japan; the Anti-Japanese War

抗氧化剂kàngyǎnghuàjìHSK 7+

antioxidant

noun
抗忧郁药kàng yōu yù yàoHSK 7+

antidepressant

phrase
抗组织胺kàngzǔzhī'àn

(pharmacology) antihistamine

noun
负隅顽抗fùyúwánkàngHSK 6+

to make a last-ditch fight (relying on a strategically inaccessible place or other conditions)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

抗照镜子,整理一下自己的仪容。

kàng zhào jìng zǐ , zhěng lǐ yī xià zì jǐ de yí róng .

Face the mirror and tidy up your appearance.

RfiFeb 2026

日本抗议中国宣布严控出口军民两用物项的日本企业...

rì běn kàng yì zhōng guó xuān bù yán kòng chū kǒu jūn mín liǎng yòng wù xiàng de rì běn qǐ yè . . .

Japan protests against China's announcement of strict controls on the export of dual-use items by Japanese companies...

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

...管李嘉诚旗下两大港口 香港政府与长和严正抗议

. . . guǎn lǐ jiā chéng qí xià liǎng dà gǎng kǒu xiāng gǎng zhèng fǔ yǔ cháng hé yán zhèng kàng yì

... The Hong Kong government protested with Changhe solemnly

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

台积电ADR相对抗跌 较台北交易溢价22% 日月光跌逾2%

tái jī diàn A D R xiāng duì kàng diē jiào tái běi jiāo yì yì jià 2 2 rì yuè guāng diē yú 2

TSMC ADR is relatively resistant to decline, with a 22% premium from Taipei trading, and ASE fell more than 2%

It之家Feb 2026

拒绝“末日刷屏”:美国年轻人对抗信息过载,带火老式数码相机与苹果 iPo...

jù jué mò rì shuā bǐng : měi guó nián qīng rén duì kàng xìn xī guò zài , dài huǒ lǎo shì shǔ mǎ xiāng jī yǔ píng guǒ i P o . . .

Refuse to "swipe the screen at the end of the day": young Americans fight against information overload, with fire vintage digital cameras and Apple iPo...

Tatoeba

难以抵抗给句子押韵的愿望。

Nányǐ dǐkàng gěi jùzi yāyùn de yuànwàng.

It's hard to resist the wish to make the sentence rhyme.

Tatoeba

美国的工人开始抗议。

Měiguó de gōngrén kāishǐ kàngyì.

American workers began to protest.

Tatoeba

狗停下了脚步,好像在抗议。

Gǒu tíngxià le jiǎobù, hǎoxiàng zài kàngyì.

The dog stopped walking, as if to complain.

Tatoeba

我外公是在抗日战争时被杀的。

Wǒ wàigōng shì zài Kàng Rì Zhànzhēng shí bèi shā de.

My grandfather was murdered during the Second World War.

Tatoeba

抗议者威胁要践踏反对者留下的横幅。

Kàngyìzhě wēixié yào jiàntà fǎnduì zhě liúxià de héngfú.

The protesters threatened to stomp on the banners left by their opposition.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced kàng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 抗 (kàng) mean in Chinese?
抗 (kàng) primarily means "to resist." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #766 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 抗 have?
抗 is written with 7 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 抗?
The radical associated with 抗 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 抗?
抗 is composed of: 扌 (structural), 亢 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌亢 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 抗?
Common words with 抗 include: 反抗 (fǎn kàng, "to resist"); 对抗 (duì kàng, "to withstand"); 抗议 (kàng yì, "to protest"); 抵抗 (dǐ kàng, "to resist"); 抗拒 (kàng jù, "to resist"). There are over 90 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 抗 (kàng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation kàng: 康 (healthy), 慷 (used in 慷慨). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 抗 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 抗 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 抗 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.