公
Meanings
- public
- collectively owned
- common
- international (e.g. high seas, metric system, calendar)
- make public
- fair
- just
- Duke, highest of five orders of nobility 五等爵位 wǔ děng jué wèi
- honorable (gentlemen)
- father-in-law
- male (animal)
Characters in this entry
- 公
- gōng · fair, equitable; public; duke
Explore the spelling
Mandarin tones
1 · gong1
Compare attested words with these syllables ↗Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.
Connected dictionary
Sentences in context
Exact source-spelling matches. Open the reader for dictionary lookups, construction notes and related examples. Occurrence does not establish a particular dictionary sense.
Read this spelling in Classical texts
Follow a written form into the eight pinned witnesses: Analects, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Xunzi, Han Feizi, Sunzi and the Mao Shijing. A match is a place to investigate; it does not prove that a modern dictionary sense fits the passage.
Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary · 14 senses · 1 Cantonese reading
Rime Cantonese 粵拼
gung1
Cantonese word readings for 公. This lexicon supplies readings, not definitions.
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Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section
Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.
character
- public; communal
- fair; equitable
- to make public; to announce
- international; universal
- duke
- (of animals) male
- (figuratively, of instruments, tools, or connectors) male
- (honorific) old man or a man of high status
- grandfather
- father-in-law (husband's father)
- (Cantonese) heads (side of a coin)
- (Cantonese, xiangqi) general; marshal; king
- (Hakka) A noun suffix
- a surname
Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack