Chinese character for dog: 狗 (gǒu)
The Chinese character for dog is 狗 (gǒu). It means dog and is the eleventh animal of the Chinese zodiac. It appears in 小狗 (xiǎogǒu, puppy) and 狗年 (gǒu nián, Year of the Dog). In the zodiac the dog stands for loyalty.
How 狗 is built
狗 joins 犭, the animal radical, which comes from 犬 (quǎn, dog), with 句 (jù), which hints at the sound gǒu. So the meaning side is itself a dog, which makes this character easy to remember. 犭 appears on many animal characters, such as 猫 (cat), 狼 (wolf) and 猴 (monkey). 狗 is identical in simplified and traditional Chinese.
狗 gǒu · dog
- 犭quǎn — dog
- 句jù — sentence
- 勹bāo — wrap shape
- 丿 — falling stroke
- 口kǒu — mouth
- 冂 — frame
- 一 — horizontal stroke
- 勹bāo — wrap shape
Origin hint: 犭 gives the meaning, 句 gives the sound. (from the Make Me a Hanzi dataset; treat as a memory aid where history is uncertain)
How 狗 is used
Other ways to say dog
- 犬 quǎn — dog in formal or written Chinese; also the Japanese kanji for dog
Before you use it as a tattoo or design: 狗 appears in some insults in Chinese, so it is safest in clear contexts such as the zodiac or 狗年.
Questions
What is the Chinese character for dog?
狗 (gǒu) means “dog”.
How do you pronounce 狗?
狗 is pronounced gǒu.