DICTIONARY · CC-CEDICT

考公

Mandarin · pinyin kǎo gōng

to sit for a civil service exam

Full entryShow on map

Characters in this entry

考: kǎo · examine, test; investigate
公: gōng · fair, equitable; public; duke

Written characters and their own readings; the entry’s pronunciation is shown above.

Explore the spelling

Mandarin tones

3–1 · kao3 gong1

Compare attested words with these syllables ↗

Dictionary tones. Connected speech can change their realization.

Connected dictionary

2character links

Explore word families ↗Compare pronunciations ↗Open character structure ↗

Counts describe dictionary records, not word frequency or semantic similarity. Source identities stay separate.

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.

考公 · find source passages ↗

Explore Classical grammar ↗

Compare dictionary sources Wiktionary

Wiktionary English definitions · Chinese section

Independent source senses for this spelling, with usage labels retained. Not matched to the pronunciation above.

noun

(abbreviation, alt-of) short for 公務員考試／公务员考试 (gōngwùyuán kǎoshì, “civil service examination”)

verb

(abbreviation, alt-of) short for 考公務員／考公务员 (kǎo gōngwùyuán, “to take such exam”)

Source page · dump 2026-09-02 · Contributors & history

Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source & license · Data pack