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).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 肉 meat17 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xiōng tángchest
枪膛qiāng tángbore of a gun
膛线táng xiànrifling (helical grooves inside the barrel of a gun)
开膛手杰克kāi táng shǒu jié kèJack the Ripper
上牙膛shàng yá tángpalate (roof of the mouth)
上膛shàng tángroof of the mouth
脸膛liǎn tángfacial contour
炸膛zhà táng(of a gun) to explode
膛径táng jìngcaliber (of a gun)
滑膛huá 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
0.5572,922 co-occurrences
炮pào
0.5385,232 co-occurrences
滑huá
0.5093,102 co-occurrences
枪qiāng
0.4781,680 co-occurrences
炉lú
0.448408 co-occurrences
肚dù
0.439312 co-occurrences
填tián
0.407696 co-occurrences
弹dàn
0.406972 co-occurrences
磅bàng
0.405318 co-occurrences
毫háo
0.3921,032 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.

Character Family

肉 Radical Family — Characters sharing the meat radical

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

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

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

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 17 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: 汤 (soup), 唐 (Tang dynasty (618–907)), 堂 (hall), 塘 (dyke), 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.

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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.