供 (gòng): to lay (sacrificial offerings);…

Meanings

1 to lay (sacrificial offerings); to make offerings to
2 offerings (to gods or ancestors)
3 to confess
4 confession; statement (in court or to police)

Characters

供

gòng

to lay (sacrificial offerings); to make offerings to

Examples

祖宗牌位前供着新鲜水果。

Zǔzōng páiwèi qián gòng zhe xīnxiān shuǐguǒ.

An offering of fresh fruit is laid before the ancestral tablet.

嫌犯在审讯中供认了所有罪行。

Xiánfàn zài shěnxùn zhōng gòngrèn le suǒyǒu zuìxíng.

Under interrogation the suspect confessed everything.

他的口供在法庭上被用作证据。

Tā de kǒugòng zài fǎtíng shàng bèi yòng zuò zhèngjù.

His oral confession was used as evidence in court.

Tips

usage

gòng splits into two clean semantic clusters: ritual offering — 供奉 (to enshrine), 供品 (offering), 上供 (to make offerings) — and legal confession — 口供 (oral testimony), 招供 (to confess), 供词 (statement), 翻供 (to retract a confession). For 'to supply / provide', switch to the gōng reading.

memory

Both gòng senses share the idea of 'placing something before someone in authority' — offerings laid before a god or ancestors, testimony laid before a magistrate. The 亻 on the left is the petitioner or suspect; 共 on the right is the formal joint act of presenting.

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form)

Left indexing person-variant 亻 — anchors 供 as a person-to-person action: a provider supplying someone else, or (in the gòng reading) a worshipper offering to a deity. The human element is essential to both readings of the character.

phonetic

共 gòng

together; shared

Right component 共 — supplies the sound (gòng matches the gòng reading; gōng is just a tone shift) AND a perfect bonus meaning: together, shared. Supplying and offering both involve sharing what is yours with another. 共 itself depicts two hands holding up an object jointly.