gǎng
noun #10,270

Meanings

  1. 1 mound; hillock
  2. 2 sentry post; guard station
  3. 3 post; position

Examples

HSK 2
Tā zài gōngzuò gǎngwèi shàng hěn rènzhēn.
He is very diligent at his work post.
HSK 4
Ménkǒu yǒu yīgè zhàngǎng de shìbīng.
There is a soldier standing guard at the entrance.

Tips

usage
is in 岗位 (work post/position), 站岗 (to stand guard), 上岗 (to go on duty), 下岗 (to be laid off).

Components

radical
shān
mountain
Mountain radical on top, the indexing radical. A is a small hill or mound - a baby mountain - so the radical does literal semantic work. The 'sentry post' sense grew from soldiers being stationed on hilltop lookouts, and the 'job position' sense from there.
phonetic
gāng
ridge; hill
Lower supplies the gāng sound (which becomes gǎng with the descending tone in ). It also already means 'hill ridge' on its own - making this a doubled semantic-phonetic compound. Adding above emphasized the mountain aspect when alone felt too abstract.

Stroke Order

gǎng