The bow (weapon) radical — 弓 (gōng)
A bow with its string. It gives 张 (to stretch open, measure word for flat things), 引 (to pull, to lead), 强 (strong) and 弹 (to shoot, to play an instrument).
At a glance
- Radical
- 弓
- Pinyin
- gōng
- Meaning
- Bow (weapon)
- Strokes
- 3 (3 strokes section)
Stroke order
Characters built on 弓
Every character below contains 弓. Meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the translator; tap any character for its full dictionary entry — stroke order, every sense, examples and the words built from it.
Radicals differ enormously in how much of the language they actually build. The Chinese language statistics page ranks every radical by how many characters it appears in, measured over this site's own corpus rather than quoted from anywhere.
Walk from 弓 to its characters and their words — and follow any part on to the next character.
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弓 — frequently asked questions
What does the Chinese radical 弓 mean?
弓 is pronounced gōng and means "bow (weapon)". It is written in 3 strokes. A bow with its string. It gives 张 (to stretch open, measure word for flat things), 引 (to pull, to lead), 强 (strong) and 弹 (to shoot, to play an instrument).
Which characters use the 弓 radical?
Common examples include 张 (zhāng, Open (extend - look - measure word for flat things)), 引 (yǐn, To lead (guide - draw - cause - cite - leave)), 强 (qiáng, Strong (powerful - better - force)), 弹 (dàn / tán, Bullet (ball - bomb); To play (musical instrument)). This page lists 7 of them with pinyin, meanings and audio.
How many strokes does 弓 have?
3. Radical dictionaries file it in the 3 strokes section, which is how you look up an unfamiliar character when you cannot guess its pronunciation.
Other 3-stroke radicals
Keep going
Search the other way round in the component character finder — pick 弓 plus another part you can see and get the characters that use both. Watch any of these characters being written in the Stroke Order Animator, practise them on printable 田字格 sheets, hunt radicals against the clock in Radical Hunt, or read the background in The 100 Most Common Chinese Radicals and Chinese Character Etymology.