踝 (huái): ankle

踝 (huái) is a Chinese character meaning “ankle.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 足 (semantic) and 果 (phonetic). It ranks #2559 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 踝 foot. Its radical form 足 (foot) appears in many related characters such as 足 (zú, foot), 跑 (pǎo, to run), 路 (lù, road).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. ankle

Etymology & Origin

踝

pictophoneticfoot

Decomposition: ⿰足果 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
脚踝nounjiǎo huáiankle
踝骨nounhuái gǔankle bone
外踝nounwài huáilateral malleolus
内踝nounnèi huáimedial malleolus
足踝nounzú huáiankle
5
Total compounds
20
As first character
80
As last character
0
As middle character

踝 appears in 5 compound words: 20 as the first character, 80 as the last, and 0 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 踝 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

脚jiǎo
0.65016 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

爱范儿Aug 2026

以扎马步为例,不仅要把身体降下来,还要控制膝、髋和脚踝一起受力。

yǐ zhā mǎ bù wéi lì , bù jǐn yào bǎ shēn tǐ jiàng xià lái , hái yào kòng zhì xī , 髋 hé jiǎo huái yī qǐ shòu lì .

Take the horse stance as an example: not only do you need to lower your body, but you also need to control the distribution of force across your knees, hips, and ankles.

少数派Aug 2026

于是,我让她试着保持身体成一条直线,从脚踝处微微向前倾。

yú shì , wǒ ràng tā shì zhe bǎo chí shēn tǐ chéng yī tiáo zhí xiàn , cóng jiǎo huái chǔ wēi wēi xiàng qián qīng .

So I had her try to keep her body in a straight line, leaning forward slightly at the ankles.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

建议每坐40~60分钟便要起身活动,做一做肩颈拉伸、扩胸运动、踝泵运动或短距离步行。

jiàn yì měi zuò 4 0 6 0 fēn zhōng biàn yào qǐ shēn huó dòng , zuò yī zuò jiān jǐng lā shēn , kuò xiōng yùn dòng , huái bèng yùn dòng huò duǎn jù lí bù xíng .

It is recommended that you get up and move around every 40 to 60 minutes, doing some shoulder and neck stretches, chest-opening exercises, ankle pumps, or a short walk.

少数派Aug 2026

像我这种足踝稳定性不好而且近视的人基本告别夜跑了。

xiàng wǒ zhè zhǒng zú huái wěn dìng xìng bù hǎo ér qiě jìn shì de rén jī běn gào bié yè pǎo le .

For someone like me, with poor ankle stability and nearsightedness, night runs are basically a thing of the past.

中国新闻网·生活Aug 2026

其次,选购时尽量挑鞋底偏硬、带有后跟绑带的款式,避开超高厚底鞋,以固定脚踝。

qí cì , xuǎn gòu shí jǐn liàng tiāo xié dǐ piān yìng , dài yǒu hòu gēn bǎng dài de kuǎn shì , bì kāi chāo gāo hòu dǐ xié , yǐ gù dìng jiǎo huái .

Second, when shopping for shoes, try to choose styles with relatively firm soles and heel straps, and avoid shoes with extremely high, thick soles to help stabilize your ankles.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 足 (foot) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 踝 (huái) mean in Chinese?
踝 (huái) primarily means "ankle." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #2559 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 踝 and 课?
踝 (huái) and 课 (kè) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 足 vs 讠 (same 果 component).
How many strokes does 踝 have?
踝 is written with 15 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 踝?
The radical associated with 踝 is 足 (foot). This radical appears in many characters related to foot.
What are the components of 踝?
踝 is composed of: 足 (semantic), 果 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰足果 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 踝?
Common words with 踝 include: 脚踝 (jiǎo huái, "ankle"); 踝骨 (huái gǔ, "ankle bone"); 外踝 (wài huái, "lateral malleolus"); 内踝 (nèi huái, "medial malleolus"); 足踝 (zú huái, "ankle"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
Is 踝 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 踝 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 踝 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.