Chinese word

公

Pronunciation

Pinyingōng

Meaning

  • adjectivemale

Example

这只猫是公的。zhè zhǐ māo shì gōng de

This cat is male.

Illustration for 公 (male)

More examples

公鸡在院子里打鸣。gōng jī zài yuàn zi lǐ dǎ míng

The rooster is crowing in the yard.

Core concept

A marker for a recognized shared category: in animal names it marks the male member, and in social life it marks what belongs to everyone.

Common phrases

  • 公猫gōng māo

    male cat

  • 公鸡gōng jī

    rooster

Similar words

雄xióng: Marks an animal as male when placed before the animal's name.

Definition in Chinese

表示雄性，常用于标明动物的性别，作为简短的定语置于名词之前以示区分。biǎo shì xióng xìng cháng yòng yú biāo míng dòng wù de xìng bié zuò wéi jián duǎn de dìng yǔ zhì yú míng cí zhī qián yǐ shì qū fēn

Word origin

The animal sense is an old lexical use of 公 (gōng, "male"), conventionally contrasted with 母 (mǔ, "female"), while 公 also preserves its established sense of something common or public.

Usage tips

  • When the animal is already clear from context, Chinese can use this label in a short predicate, which makes compact answers sound natural without repeating the animal noun.

Other meanings

  • publicadjective

Opposites

  • 雌cífemaleadjective

Related words

Word lists with this word