门 (mén): door, gate

门 (mén) is a Chinese character meaning “door, gate.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 丶 (structural) and 丨 (structural). It ranks #185 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, 门 an open doorway or gate. Its radical form 门 (gate) appears in many related characters such as 间 (jiān, room, between), 闪 (shǎn, to flash, to dodge), 闭 (bì, to close).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. door, gate

Etymology & Origin

门

pictographicAn open doorway or gate

Stroke Order

1
2
3

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 门

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
部门nounbù méndepartment4
门口nounmén kǒudoorway2
专门adverb/adjectivezhuān ménspecialized4
出门verbchū ménto go out2
上门verbshàng ménto drop in4
门票nounmén piàoticket (for theater, cinema etc)2
热门nounrè ménpopular6
门诊verbmén zhěnoutpatient service5
入门verb/nounrù ménentrance door6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
开门verbkāi mén(lit. and fig.) to open a door
关门verbguān ménto close a door
阿门interjectionā mén(loanword) amen
大门noundà ménentrance
后门nounhòu ménback door
敲门verbqiāo ménto knock on a door
前门nounqián ménfront door
门外adjectivemén wàioutside the door
门锁nounmén suǒdoor lock
家门nounjiā ménhouse door
车门nounchē méncar door
门前nounmén qiánin front of the door
门铃nounmén língdoorbell
锁门verbsuǒ ménto lock the door
射门verbshè mén(soccer, handball etc) to kick or shoot the ball towards the goal
112
Total compounds
30
As first character
63
As last character
7
As middle character

门 appears in 112 compound words: 30 as the first character, 63 as the last, and 7 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 门 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

厦shà
0.64619,272 co-occurrences
槛jiàn
0.5772,222 co-occurrences
专zhuān
0.54231,886 co-occurrences
拱gǒng
0.4633,448 co-occurrences
炮pào
0.4569,294 co-occurrences
部bù
0.45280,690 co-occurrences
澳ào
0.44911,998 co-occurrences
荆jīng
0.4391,824 co-occurrences
诊zhěn
0.4374,314 co-occurrences
闸zhá
0.4351,566 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (49)

挨门挨户āimén'āihùHSK 7+

synonym of 挨家挨戶 /挨家挨户 (āijiā'āihù, “(to go) from door to door”)

phrase
摆龙门阵bǎi lóngménzhènHSK 6+

to chat; to gossip; to spin a yarn; to chew the rag

verb
班门弄斧bānménnòngfǔHSK 7+

to show off one's inferior talent or skill in front of an expert; to teach an expert how to do things

phrase
傍人门户bàngrénménhùHSK 5+

to depend on others; to be unable to live independently

phrase
闭门觅句bì mén mì jùHSK 7+

lit. lock the door and search for the right word (idiom); fig. the serious hard work of writing

phrase
闭门塞窦bì mén sè dòu

to close doors and block openings (idiom); mounting a strict defense

phrase
闭门思过bìménsīguòHSK 5+

to shut oneself away and reflect on one’s mistakes

phrase
闭门造车bìménzàochēHSK 5+

do something irrespective of external circumstances; to operate in a vacuum

phrase
宾客盈门bīn kè yíng ménHSK 7+

guests filled the hall (idiom); a house full of distinguished visitors

phrase
禅门五宗chán mén wǔ zōngHSK 7+

the five schools of Chan Buddhism

phrase
吃闭门羹chī bìméngēng

to be refused admission as an unwelcome guest; to be rejected or refused

verb
出门在外chū mén zài wàiHSK 2+

to be away from home; to live away from one's family

phrase

Showing 12 of 49 idioms containing 门.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请随手关门,保持室内温度。

Qǐng suíshǒu guān mén, bǎochí shìnèi wēndù.

Please close the door to maintain indoor temperature.

百度新闻Feb 2026

“家门口”到“厂门口”,首批数百名来沪务工劳动...

jiā mén kǒu dào hǎn mén kǒu , shǒu pī shǔ bǎi míng lái hù wù gōng láo dòng . . .

From the "doorstep" to the "factory gate", the first batch of hundreds of migrant workers came to Shanghai to work...

百度新闻Feb 2026

对话上门做年夜饭的“95后”女生:回应春节当月收...

duì huà shǎng mén zuò nián yè fàn de hòu nǚ shēng huí yīng chūn jié dāng yuè shōu . . .

Dialogue on the door to do the New Year's Eve dinner "95" girls: response to the Chinese New Year when the month receiv...

百度新闻Feb 2026

春节假期拍了拍你,出门揣一份“安心”更踏实

chūn jié jiǎ qī pāi le pāi nǐ , chū mén chuāi yī fèn ān xīn gēng tà shí

The Spring Festival holiday has tapped you on the shoulder—head out with a sense of peace of mind for added reassurance.

百度新闻Feb 2026

90后男生春节上门喂猫 前后20多天 爆赚16万 ..

hòu nán shēng chūn jié shǎng mén wéi māo qián hòu duō tiān bào zhuàn mò . .

A post-90s guy made a killing over the Spring Festival by offering cat-feeding services at clients' homes. In just over 20 days, he raked in 160,000 yuan.

Tatoeba

你可以不把门开着吗?

Nǐ kěyǐ bù bǎmén kāi zhe ma?

Would you please not leave the door open?

Tatoeba

看到了吧?你应该学一门外语。

Kàn dào le ba? nǐ yīnggāi xué yī mén wàiyǔ.

You see? You must study a foreign language.

Tatoeba

我在哪里可以买到门票?

Wǒ zài nǎlǐ kěyǐ mǎi dào ménpiào?

Where can I buy an entrance ticket?

Tatoeba

在门口的女孩是谁?

Zài ménkǒu de nǚhái shì shéi?

Who's the girl at the door?

Tatoeba

你要穿那种衣服出门?不太好看耶。

Nǐ yào chuān nà zhǒng yīfu chūmén? Bù tài hǎo kàn yē.

Going out with those clothes? They look kinda bad.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced mén

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 门 (mén) mean in Chinese?
门 (mén) primarily means "door, gate." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #185 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 门 have?
门 is written with 3 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 门?
The radical associated with 门 is 门 (gate). This radical appears in many characters related to gate.
What are the components of 门?
门 is composed of: 丶 (structural), 丨 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 门?
Common words with 门 include: 部门 (bù mén, "department"); 开门 (kāi mén, "(lit. and fig.) to open a door"); 关门 (guān mén, "to close a door"); 门口 (mén kǒu, "doorway"); 专门 (zhuān mén, "specialized"). There are over 112 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 门 (mén)?
Several characters share the pronunciation mén: 们 (plural marker), 闷 (stuffy). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 门 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 门 and the traditional form is 門.

Practice writing 门 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.