共 (gòng) is a Chinese character meaning “common”. It is written from 廿 (twenty) and 八 (eight), one above the other, and takes 6 strokes.
Build the character for “together; in common”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
廿 + 八
Top–bottom structure
Structure from: Unicode U+5171; modern glyph stroke decomposition checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry (strokes 0-3 = 廿, strokes 4-5 = 八)
Memory aid
廿 (twenty) sits on top of 八 (eight) — a crowd of twenty-eight, and whatever they have, they have it together.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
6 strokes
In real words
- 公共gōng gòngpublic; communal共 = gòngHSK 3
- 共同gòng tóngcommon; joint; together共 = gòngHSK 4
- 共鸣gòng míngresonance; sympathetic response共 = gòng
- 总共zǒng gòngaltogether; in total共 = gòngHSK 4
Go deeper
All readings
together; in common
common; shared; together; altogether, in total
大家一起拥有或一起做；也表示合起来的总数。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 公共gōng gòngpublic; communal共 = gòngHSK 3
- 共同gòng tóngcommon; joint; together共 = gòngHSK 4
- 共鸣gòng míngresonance; sympathetic response共 = gòng
- 总共zǒng gòngaltogether; in total共 = gòngHSK 4
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 共 mean?
共 (gòng) means common; shared; together; altogether, in total.
How do you pronounce 共?
It is pronounced gòng.
What parts is 共 made of?
廿 (twenty) and 八 (eight), one above the other. The recorded source is: Unicode U+5171; modern glyph stroke decomposition checked against hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 stroke geometry (strokes 0-3 = 廿, strokes 4-5 = 八). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 共 have?
6. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 共?
八. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 共?
Common ones are 公共 and 共同. The reading of 共 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.