(): to envy (success, talent), jealous

() is a Chinese character meaning “to envy (success, talent).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2488 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, woman. Its radical form (woman) appears in many related characters such as (, woman), (nǎi, grandmother, milk), (, she).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to envy (success, talent)
  2. jealous

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwoman

Decomposition: ⿰女户 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jí dùto be jealous of
dù jìto be jealous of (sb's achievements etc)
dù jíto be jealous of (sb's achievements etc)
jì duto be jealous of
jí xián dù néng(idiom) to envy the virtuous and talented
tiān dù yīng cáiheaven is jealous of heroic genius (idiom)
dù néng hài xiánjealous of the able, envious of the clever (idiom)
dù xián jí néngsee 嫉賢妒能|嫉贤妒能[ji2 xian2 du4 neng2]
xiàn mù jí dù hènto be green with envy (neologism c. 2009)
9
Total compounds
44
As first character
22
As last character
33
As middle character

appears in 9 compound words: 44 as the first character, 22 as the last, and 33 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.90522,225 co-occurrences
0.72811,076 co-occurrences
hèn
0.4791,092 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.458150 co-occurrences
0.396582 co-occurrences
lán
0.39372 co-occurrences
xīn
0.3814,044 co-occurrences
yuàn
0.370240 co-occurrences
jiāo
0.36360 co-occurrences
0.357360 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

dù néng hài xiánHSK 7+

jealous of the able, envious of the clever (idiom)

phrase
dù xián jí néngHSK 7+

see 嫉賢妒能|嫉贤妒能[ji2 xian2 du4 neng2]

phrase
jí xián dù néngHSK 7+

(idiom) to envy the virtuous and talented

phrase
tiāndùyīngcáiHSK 7+

The Heaven is jealous of talents. (used to express regret to a talented person who died young)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个孩从小就展现出非凡的音乐天赋。

zhè gě dù hái cóng xiǎo jiù zhǎn xiàn chū fēi fán de yīn lè tiān fù .

This child has shown extraordinary musical talent since early childhood.

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

郑习会4月登场 翁晓玲酸赖总统:心里忌郑丽文

zhèng xí huì 4 yuè dēng chǎng wēng xiǎo 玲 suān lài zǒng tǒng : xīn lǐ jì dù zhèng lí wén

Hk01.comMar 2026

...事炒股午睡看球赛!实际工作2小时反高薪招忌 网民..他值得

. . . shì chǎo gǔ wǔ shuì kàn qiú sài ! shí jì gōng zuò 2 xiǎo shí fǎn gāo xīn zhāo dù jì wǎng mín . . tā zhí dé

Hk01.comFeb 2026

爱妻男神被捕获真实颜值曝光一优点令男士忌 网民:老婆有福气

ài qī nán shén bèi bǔ huò zhēn shí yán zhí pù guāng yī yōu diǎn lìng nán shì dù jì wǎng mín : lǎo pó yǒu fú qì

The male god who loves his wife was captured and his real appearance was exposed, which made men jealous Netizens: Blessed wives

Tatoeba

是谋杀的动机。

Jídù shì móushā de dòngjī.

Jealousy was the motive for the murder.

Tatoeba

许多人嫉汤姆的成功。

Xǔduō rén jídù Tāngmǔ de chénggōng.

Many people envy Tom's success.

Tatoeba

他们嫉我们的成功。

Tāmen jídù wǒmen de chénggōng.

They are jealous of our success.

Tatoeba

没有忌就没有爱情。

Méiyǒu dùjì jiù méiyǒu àiqíng.

There's no love without jealousy.

Tatoeba

我想我感到有点嫉

Wǒ xiǎng wǒ gǎndào yǒudiǎn jídù.

I suppose I felt a little jealous.

Tatoeba

她只是嫉你年轻。

Tā zhǐshì jídù nǐ niánqīng.

She's just jealous of your youth.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 妒 (dù) mean in Chinese?
妒 (dù) primarily means "to envy (success, talent)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2488 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 妒 and 雇?
妒 (dù) and 雇 (gù) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 女 vs 隹 (same 户 component).
How many strokes does 妒 have?
妒 is written with 7 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 妒?
The radical associated with 妒 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 妒?
妒 is composed of: 女 (semantic), 户 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女户 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 妒?
Common words with 妒 include: 嫉妒 (jí dù, "to be jealous of"); 妒忌 (dù jì, "to be jealous of (sb's achievements etc)"); 妒嫉 (dù jí, "to be jealous of (sb's achievements etc)"); 忌妒 (jì du, "to be jealous of"); 嫉贤妒能 (jí xián dù néng, "(idiom) to envy the virtuous and talented"). There are over 9 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 妒 (dù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dù: 督 ((bound form) to supervise), 毒 (poison), 独 (alone), 堵 (to block up (a road, pipe etc)), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 妒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 妒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.