HSK 6 · Objects

坑 kēng “pit” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 坑 means

  1. pit
  2. hole
  3. to cheat
  4. hollow
  5. depression
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • (mining) pit
  • shaft
  • tunnel
  • (coll.) to cheat
  • to scam
  • to screw over

How to say 坑

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale坑kēng1st tone, high and level

坑 in a sentence

  1. 他愤怒地践踏水坑，弄得泥水四溅。

    Tā fènnù de jiàntà shuǐkēng, nòng de níshuǐ sìjiàn.

    Angrily, he stomped on the puddle, splashing mud everywhere.

    Sentence #13153667 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

  2. 我只用一天就用铲子挖了一个大坑。

    Wǒ zhǐ yòng yì tiān jiù yòng chǎnzi wā le yí ge dà kēng.

    In just one day, I dug a big pit with a shovel.

    Sentence #13858602 from Tatoeba · converted to simplified characters · translation adapted

How 坑 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 坑 (kēng) with each of its parts in a different colour
坑kēngpit; hollow; depression
  • 土earth · tǔMeaning part
  • 亢high · kàngSound part

土 hints at the meaning (earth); 亢 (kàng) hints at the sound. Compare it with kēng.

How to write 坑

坑 7 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

坑 (kēng) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 坑 (kēng). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 坑

More words: Objects & Materials

罐guàn · jar古董gǔdǒng · antique棍棒gùnbàng · club剑jiàn · sword孔kǒng · hole空隙kòngxì · gap筐kuāng · basket喇叭lǎba · horn

FAQs

坑 (kēng) means “pit” or “hole”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it kēng: kēng with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 坑 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type keng with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 坑 from the suggestions. Typing keng into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
坑 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.