膛 (táng): (bound form) hollow space

膛 (táng) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) hollow space.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of ⺼ (structural) and 堂 (structural). It ranks #2673 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 膛 a hall 堂 in one's chest ⺼; 堂 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 肉 (meat) appears in many related characters such as 肉 (ròu, meat), 能 (néng, can), 背 (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Spoken pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 肉 meat15 strokesFrequency #2673⺼ structural堂 structural

Definitions

  1. (bound form) hollow space

Etymology & Origin

膛

ideographicA hall 堂 in one's chest ⺼; 堂 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰⺼堂 (layout: left-right)

Components:⺼structural堂structural

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
胸膛nounxiōng tángchest
枪膛nounqiāng tángbore of a gun
膛线nountáng xiànrifling (helical grooves inside the barrel of a gun)
开膛手杰克proper-nounkāi táng shǒu jié kèJack the Ripper
上牙膛shàng yá tángpalate (roof of the mouth)
上膛nounshàng tángroof of the mouth
脸膛liǎn tángfacial contour
炸膛verbzhà táng(of a gun) to explode
膛径táng jìngcaliber (of a gun)
滑膛nounhuá tángsmoothbore
炉膛lú tángfurnace chamber
11
Total compounds
18
As first character
73
As last character
9
As middle character

膛 appears in 11 compound words: 18 as the first character, 73 as the last, and 9 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 膛 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

胸xiōng
0.549974 co-occurrences
炮pào
0.5301,744 co-occurrences
滑huá
0.5021,034 co-occurrences
枪qiāng
0.471560 co-occurrences
炉lú
0.441136 co-occurrences
肚dù
0.433104 co-occurrences
填tián
0.401232 co-occurrences
弹dàn
0.400324 co-occurrences
磅bàng
0.399106 co-occurrences
毫háo
0.386344 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

膛字的写法很特别，让我印象深刻。

táng zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The character "膛" has a very distinctive writing style that left a deep impression on me.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

画面中，这位舞者脚步一开，胸膛挺起，舞步里的桀骜与犷悍穿透屏幕。

huà miàn zhōng , zhè wèi wǔ zhě jiǎo bù yī kāi , xiōng táng tǐng qǐ , wǔ bù lǐ de 桀 骜 yǔ 犷 悍 chuān tòu bǐng mù .

In the scene, as the dancer takes a step forward and thrusts out her chest, the defiance and fierceness in her movements pierce right through the screen.

工商時報Apr 2026

三箭挺运动产业 国发会运动百亿基金上膛

sān jiàn tǐng yùn dòng chǎn yè guó fā huì yùn dòng bǎi yì jī jīn shàng táng

Three-Pronged Approach to Boost Sports Industry; National Development Council’s 10-Billion-Yuan Sports Fund Ready to Launch

Character Family

肉 Radical Family — Characters sharing the meat radical

能néng背bèi胜shèng胡hú脱tuō肉ròu胸xiōng肩jiān腐fǔ胶jiāo

Related Characters

肉ròu能néng背bèi胜shèng胸xiōng脱tuō腐fǔ肩jiān胡hú胶jiāo

Homophones — Characters pronounced táng

堂táng唐táng躺tǎng汤tāng糖táng趟tàng塘táng烫tàng淌tǎng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 膛 (táng) mean in Chinese?
膛 (táng) primarily means "(bound form) hollow space." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2673 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 膛 have?
膛 is written with 15 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 膛?
The radical associated with 膛 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 膛?
膛 is composed of: ⺼ (structural), 堂 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼堂 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 膛?
Common words with 膛 include: 胸膛 (xiōng táng, "chest"); 枪膛 (qiāng táng, "bore of a gun"); 膛线 (táng xiàn, "rifling (helical grooves inside the barrel of a gun)"); 开膛手杰克 (kāi táng shǒu jié kè, "Jack the Ripper"); 上牙膛 (shàng yá táng, "palate (roof of the mouth)"). There are over 11 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 膛 (táng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation táng: 堂 (hall), 唐 (Tang dynasty (618–907)), 躺 (to recline), 汤 (soup), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 膛 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 膛 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 膛 with real-time feedback

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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.