公

Translingual

Stroke order

Etymology

Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Han character

公 (radical 12 八+2, 4 strokes, cangjie input 金戈 (CI), four-corner 8073₂, composition ⿱八厶)

1. fair, equitable
2. public
3. duke
4. male (for animals, not humans)

References

• KangXi: page 126, character 28
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 1452
• Dae Jaweon: page 277, character 1
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 1, page 242, character 1
• Unihan data for U+516C

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Cantonese

Hanzi

公 (Yale gung1)

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Japanese

Kanji

公 (grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji)

Readings

• Go'on: く (ku)
• Kan'on: こう (kō)
• Kun: おおやけ (ooyake), きみ (kimi)

Compounds

公安 (こうあん, kōan) 公演 (こうえん, kōen) 公園 (こうえん, kōen) 公開 (こうかい, kōkai)

公共 (こうきょう, kōkyō) 公私 (こうし, kōshi) 公衆 (こうしゅう, kōshū) 公認 (こうにん, kōnin)

公判 (こうはん, kōhan) 公募 (こうぼ, kōbo) 公報 (こうほう, kōhō) 公式 (こうしき, kōshiki)

Noun

公 (hiragana おおやけ, romaji ōyake)

1. official, governmental

公 (hiragana こう, romaji kō)

1. prince, duke

Pronoun

公 (hiragana きみ, romaji kimi)

1. Alternative form of 君.

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Korean

Hanja

公
Eumhun:

• Sound (hangeul): 공 (revised: gong, McCune-Reischauer: kong)

• Name (hangeul): 공변될()

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Mandarin

Hanzi

公 (pinyin gōng (gong1), Wade-Giles kung¹)

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Middle Chinese

Han character

公 (*gung)

Usage notes

For the meaning of male, "公" can be collocated with the names of animals, such as 公 (male) + 羊 (sheep) -> 公羊 (ram)

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Vietnamese

Han character

公 (công)