嫉 (jí): jealousy, to be jealous of

嫉 (jí) is a Chinese character meaning “jealousy.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 女 (structural) and 疾 (structural). It ranks #2556 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 嫉 an envious 疾 woman 女; 疾 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 女 (woman) appears in many related characters such as 女 (nǚ, woman), 奶 (nǎi, grandmother, milk), 她 (tā, she).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. jealousy
  2. to be jealous of

Etymology & Origin

嫉

ideographicAn envious 疾 woman 女; 疾 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰女疾 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
嫉妒verbjí dùto be jealous of
愤世嫉俗phrasefèn shì jí súto be cynical
妒嫉verbdù jíto be jealous of (sb's achievements etc)
嫉恨verbjí hènto hate out of jealousy
嫉恶如仇jí è rú chóu(idiom) to hate evil as one hates an enemy
嫉贤妒能jí xián dù néng(idiom) to envy the virtuous and talented
妒贤嫉能dù xián jí néngsee 嫉賢妒能|嫉贤妒能
羡慕嫉妒恨verbxiàn mù jí dù hènto be green with envy (neologism c. 2009)
8
Total compounds
50
As first character
13
As last character
38
As middle character

嫉 appears in 8 compound words: 50 as the first character, 13 as the last, and 38 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 嫉 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

妒dù
0.9047,423 co-occurrences
愤fèn
0.536328 co-occurrences
恨hèn
0.516522 co-occurrences
俗sú
0.492800 co-occurrences
仇chóu
0.474424 co-occurrences
羡xiàn
0.46552 co-occurrences
忌jì
0.429160 co-occurrences
恶è
0.402170 co-occurrences
婪lán
0.37818 co-occurrences
怨yuàn
0.37174 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

妒贤嫉能dù xián jí néngHSK 7+

see 嫉賢妒能|嫉贤妒能

phrase
愤世嫉俗fènshìjísúHSK 7+

to be cynical; to be embittered

phrase
嫉恶如仇jí è rú chóuHSK 7+

(idiom) to hate evil as one hates an enemy

phrase
嫉贤妒能jí xián dù néngHSK 7+

(idiom) to envy the virtuous and talented

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

嫉娲补天的故事在中国流传了几千年。

jí 娲 bǔ tiān de gù shì zài zhōng guó liú chuán le jī qiān nián .

The story of Nuwa patching the sky has been passed down for thousands of years in China.

少数派Sep 2026

嫉妒现在的年轻人,从小吃得好见得广,挤出的也都是精彩乐章。

jí dù xiàn zài de nián qīng rén , cóng xiǎo chī dé hǎo jiàn dé guǎng , jǐ chū de yě dōu shì jīng cǎi lè zhāng .

I envy today's young people—they've eaten well and seen the world since childhood, and everything they create is a masterpiece.

少数派Aug 2026

你也会忍不住感慨难怪在天主教的教义里,“嫉妒”是七宗罪之一。

nǐ yě huì rěn bù zhù gǎn kǎi nán guài zài tiān zhǔ jiào de jiào yì lǐ , jí dù shì qī zōng zuì zhī yī .

You, too, can’t help but marvel: no wonder “envy” is one of the seven deadly sins in Catholic doctrine.

Tatoeba

嫉妒是谋杀的动机。

Jídù shì móushā de dòngjī.

Jealousy was the motive for the murder.

Tatoeba

许多人嫉妒汤姆的成功。

Xǔduō rén jídù Tāngmǔ de chénggōng.

Many people envy Tom's success.

Tatoeba

他们嫉妒我们的成功。

Tāmen jídù wǒmen de chénggōng.

They are jealous of our success.

Tatoeba

我想我感到有点嫉妒。

Wǒ xiǎng wǒ gǎndào yǒudiǎn jídù.

I suppose I felt a little jealous.

Tatoeba

她只是嫉妒你年轻。

Tā zhǐshì jídù nǐ niánqīng.

She's just jealous of your youth.

Tatoeba

「我已经找到令他嫉妒的方法了。」「喔,说吧!」

「 wǒ yǐjīng zhǎodào lìng tā jídù de fāngfǎ le.」「 ō, shuō ba!」

"I've found a way to make him really jealous." "Oh, do tell!"

Tatoeba

他们很明显在嫉妒他的财富和地位。

Tāmen hěn míngxiǎn zài jídù tā de cáifù hé dìwèi.

Obviously, they are jealous of his wealth and status.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jí

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 嫉 (jí) mean in Chinese?
嫉 (jí) primarily means "jealousy." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2556 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 嫉 have?
嫉 is written with 13 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 嫉?
The radical associated with 嫉 is 女 (woman). This radical appears in many characters related to woman.
What are the components of 嫉?
嫉 is composed of: 女 (structural), 疾 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰女疾 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 嫉?
Common words with 嫉 include: 嫉妒 (jí dù, "to be jealous of"); 愤世嫉俗 (fèn shì jí sú, "to be cynical"); 妒嫉 (dù jí, "to be jealous of (sb's achievements etc)"); 嫉恨 (jí hèn, "to hate out of jealousy"); 嫉恶如仇 (jí è rú chóu, "(idiom) to hate evil as one hates an enemy"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 嫉 (jí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jí: 机 (machine, opportunity), 己 (self), 几 (how many), 计 (to calculate), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 嫉 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 嫉 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 嫉 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.