(): cave

() is a Chinese character meaning “cave.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2705 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, cave. Its radical form (cave) appears in many related characters such as 穿 (chuān, to wear, 穿透), (kōng, empty, sky), (, sudden).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. cave

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticcave

Decomposition: ⿱穴屈 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
pín mín kūslum housing
窿kū longhole
dòng kūa cave
mó kūlit. nest of devils
shí kūrock cave
sì dà shí kūthe four great caves, namely: Longmen Grottoes 龍門石窟|龙门石窟[Long2 men2 Shi2 ku1] at Luoyang, Henan, Yungang Caves 雲岡石窟|云...
lóng mén shí kūLongmen Grottoes at Luoyang 洛陽|洛阳[Luo4 yang2], Henan
mài jī shān shí kūMt Maiji Caves at Tianshui 天水, Gansu
mò gāo kūMogao caves in Dunhuang 敦煌, Gansu
xiāo jīn kūmoney squandering establishment (e.g. gambling den, brothel etc)
yún gāng shí kūYungang Caves at Datong 大同, Shanxi 山西
wú gē kūAngkor Wat, temple complex in Cambodia
dūn huáng shí kūDunhuang caves in Gansu
jiǎo tù sān kūlit. a crafty rabbit has three burrows
窿kū long yǎnsmall hole
16
Total compounds
19
As first character
81
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 16 compound words: 19 as the first character, 81 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.

shí
0.67161,974 co-occurrences
0.64327,630 co-occurrences
窿lóng
0.575618 co-occurrences
dòng
0.5658,922 co-occurrences
pín
0.5392,655 co-occurrences
záo
0.485600 co-occurrences
0.45725,158 co-occurrences
huáng
0.424654 co-occurrences
suì
0.414120 co-occurrences
0.3931,302 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

dūn huáng shí kūHSK 7+

Dunhuang caves in Gansu; refers to Mogao caves 莫高石窟[Mo4 gao1 shi2 ku1]

phrase
jiǎotùsānkūHSK 7+

a crafty person has more than one hideout; a sly individual has more than one plan to fall back on

phrase
lóng mén shí kūHSK 7+

Longmen Grottoes at Luoyang 洛陽|洛阳[Luo4 yang2], Henan

phrase
yún gāng shí kūHSK 7+

Yungang Caves at Datong 大同, Shanxi 山西

phrase

Showing 4 of 5 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个石有上千年的历史,里面有很多精美的佛像。

Zhè gè shíkū yǒu shàngqiān nián de lìshǐ, lǐmiàn yǒu hěn duō jīngměi de fóxiàng.

This grotto has a history of over a thousand years and contains many exquisite Buddha statues.

StheadlineMar 2026

警界限街扫黄捣破淫 65岁男涉管理卖淫场所被捕

jǐng jiè xiàn jiē sǎo huáng dǎo pò 淫 kū 6 5 suì nán shè guǎn lǐ mài 淫 chǎng suǒ bèi bǔ

Police Raid Street in Jingjie to Crack Down on Prostitution, Busting a Brothel; 65-Year-Old Man Arrested on Suspicion of Operating a Prostitution Establishment

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Mar 2026

新疆吐峪沟石引游客参观

xīn jiāng tǔ 峪 gōu shí kū yǐn yóu kè cān guàn

The Tuyugou Grottoes in Xinjiang Attract Visitors

Nownews今日新聞Mar 2026

...车行火警1死1伤!屋主救身障儿、母命丧火 疑玩柴火酿祸

. . . chē háng huǒ jǐng 1 sǐ 1 shāng ! wū zhǔ jiù shēn zhàng ér , mǔ mìng sāng huǒ kū yí wán chái huǒ niàng huò

...Car Dealership Fire Leaves 1 Dead, 1 Injured! Homeowner Saves Disabled Child, but Mother Dies in the Blaze; Fire Suspected to Have Been Caused by Playing with Firewood

NewsFeb 2026

...花湖旁深夜恶火!老翁惊险逃生 女儿命丧火成焦尸

. . . huā hú páng shēn yè è huǒ ! lǎo wēng jīng xiǎn táo shēng nǚ ér mìng sāng huǒ kū chéng jiāo shī

... Late at night by the flower lake! The old man escaped in a thrilling way, and his daughter died in the fire pit and became a charred corpse

NewsFeb 2026

宜兰冬山民宅暗夜大火 屋主女儿疑命丧火成焦尸

yí lán dōng shān mín zhái àn yè dà huǒ wū zhǔ nǚ ér yí mìng sāng huǒ kū chéng jiāo shī

Yilan Dongshan house fire in the dark night, the owner's daughter was suspected of dying, and the cave became a charred corpse

Tatoeba

汤姆住在贫民里。

Tāngmǔ zhù zài pínmínkū lǐ.

Tom lives in a slum.

Tatoeba

墨西哥有很多贫民

Mòxīgē yǒu hěn duō pínmínkū.

There are many slums in Mexico.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 窟 (kū) mean in Chinese?
窟 (kū) primarily means "cave." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2705 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 窟 and 掘?
窟 (kū) and 掘 (jué) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 穴 vs 扌 (same 屈 component).
How many strokes does 窟 have?
窟 is written with 13 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 窟?
The radical associated with 窟 is 穴 (cave). This radical appears in many characters related to cave.
What are the components of 窟?
窟 is composed of: 穴 (semantic), 屈 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱穴屈 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 窟?
Common words with 窟 include: 贫民窟 (pín mín kū, "slum housing"); 窟窿 (kū long, "hole"); 洞窟 (dòng kū, "a cave"); 魔窟 (mó kū, "lit. nest of devils"); 石窟 (shí kū, "rock cave"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 窟 (kū)?
Several characters share the pronunciation kū: 枯 ((of plants) withered), 哭 (to cry), 苦 (bitter, suffer), 库 (warehouse), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 窟 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 窟 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.