激 (jī): to arouse, to incite, to excite

激 (jī) is a Chinese character meaning “to arouse.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 敫 (phonetic). It ranks #710 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 激 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to arouse
  2. to incite
  3. to excite

Etymology & Origin

激

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵敫 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 激

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
激动adjective/verbjī dòngto move emotionally4
感激verbgǎn jīto be grateful6
刺激verb/nouncì jīto provoke5
激情nounjī qíngpassion6
激烈adjectivejī liè(of competition or fighting) intense5
激励verbjī lìto encourage6
冰激凌nounbīng jī língice cream3
激发verbjī fāto arouse6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
激光nounjī guānglaser
激怒verbjī nùto infuriate
激活verbjī huóto activate
激进adjectivejī jìnradical
激素nounjī sùhormone
感激不尽phrasegǎn jī bù jìncan't thank sb enough (idiom)
激起verbjī qǐto arouse
过激adjectiveguò jīdrastic
激战nounjī zhànto fight fiercely
雌激素nouncí jī sùestrogen
激流nounjī liútorrent
偏激adjectivepiān jīextreme (usu. of thoughts, speech, circumstances)
激增verbjī zēngto increase rapidly
激昂adjectivejī ángimpassioned
激光器nounjī guāng qìlaser
90
Total compounds
50
As first character
11
As last character
39
As middle character

激 appears in 90 compound words: 50 as the first character, 11 as the last, and 39 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 激 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

刺cì
0.61728,034 co-occurrences
烈liè
0.59331,108 co-occurrences
槐huái
0.55512 co-occurrences
怒nù
0.5396,052 co-occurrences
励lì
0.5213,949 co-occurrences
雌cí
0.4711,560 co-occurrences
素sù
0.46911,671 co-occurrences
腺xiàn
0.4491,224 co-occurrences
慷kāng
0.444394 co-occurrences
光guāng
0.43811,866 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (9)

感激不尽gǎnjībùjìnHSK 4+

can't thank (somebody) enough; to highly appreciate help provided by someone or something

phrase
感激涕零gǎnjītìlíngHSK 7+

to shed tears of gratitude; to be overwhelmingly moved by another person's kindness

phrase
激光唱片jīguāng chàngpiànHSK 4+

compact disc

noun
慷慨激昂kāngkǎijī'ángHSK 7+

impassioned; vehement

phrase
脑力激荡nǎo lì jī dàngHSK 7+

to brainstorm

phrase
生长激素shēngzhǎng jīsùHSK 5+

growth hormone

noun
雄性激素xióngxìng jīsùHSK 6+

androgen

noun
扬清激浊yáng qīng jī zhuóHSK 7+

see 激濁揚清|激浊扬清

phrase

Showing 8 of 9 idioms containing 激.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

孩子们喜欢在清澈的激边玩耍,捉小鱼小虾。

hái zǐ men xǐ huān zài qīng 澈 de jī biān wán shuǎ , zhuō xiǎo yú xiǎo xiā .

Children love to play along the clear, rushing riverbank, catching little fish and shrimp.

99 健康网Feb 2026

...小便完甩一下和性快感有关吗?尿道神经受刺激产生愉悦感吗

. . . xiǎo biàn wán shuǎi yī xià hé xìng kuài gǎn yǒu guān ma ? niào dào shén jīng shòu cì jī chǎn shēng yú yuè gǎn ma

... Is peeing related to sexual pleasure? Does the urethral nerve produce a sense of pleasure when it is stimulated?

99 健康网Feb 2026

...甩一甩能预防包皮垢吗?减少尿液残留降低刺激吗

. . . shuǎi yī shuǎi néng yù fáng bāo pí 垢 ma ? jiǎn shǎo niào yè cán liú jiàng dī cì jī ma

... Can a shake prevent smegma? Reduces urine residue and reduces irritation

Fx168 Finance NetworkFeb 2026

...黄金?30万盎司减持背后 中俄贵金属贸易激增80%-FX168

. . . huáng jīn ? 3 0 wàn 盎 sī jiǎn chí bèi hòu zhōng é guì jīn shǔ mào yì jī zēng 8 0 F X 1 6 8

... Behind the reduction of gold? 300,000 ounces of precious metals trade between China and Russia surged by 80%-FX168

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

...西洪洞大槐树:家庭亲子游成主流 根祖文化激活年俗新体验

. . . xī hóng dòng dà huái shù : jiā tíng qīn zǐ yóu chéng zhǔ liú gēn zǔ wén huà jī huó nián sú xīn tǐ yàn

... Xihongdong Big Locust Tree: Family parent-child travel has become the mainstream, and the ancestral culture activates a new experience of New Year's customs

LtnFeb 2026

激烈4轮PK决胜 彰化慈航宫年度总斗首出炉

jī liè 4 lún P K jué shèng zhāng huà cí háng gōng nián dù zǒng dǒu shǒu chū lú

Fierce 4 rounds of PK decisive Changhua Cihang Palace's annual general fight was released

Tatoeba

总理的发言估计激怒了在野党。

Zǒnglǐ de fāyán gūjì jīnù le zàiyědǎng.

The Prime Minister's speech was calculated to anger the opposition parties.

Tatoeba

我必须停止吃那么甜的冰激凌。

Wǒ bìxū tíngzhǐ chī nàme tián de bīngjīlíng.

I've got to stop eating such sweet ice cream.

Tatoeba

我想要冰激淋作甜点。

Wǒ xiǎngyào bīngjīlín zuò tiándiǎn.

I want ice cream for dessert.

Tatoeba

分享激情,就是完全沉浸在里面。

Fēnxiǎng jīqíng, jiùshì wánquán chénjìn zài lǐmiàn.

To share one's passion is to live it fully.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced jī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 激 (jī) mean in Chinese?
激 (jī) primarily means "to arouse." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #710 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 激 and 邀?
激 (jī) and 邀 (yāo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 氵 vs 辶 (same 敫 component).
How many strokes does 激 have?
激 is written with 16 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 激?
The radical associated with 激 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 激?
激 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 敫 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵敫 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 激?
Common words with 激 include: 激动 (jī dòng, "to move emotionally"); 感激 (gǎn jī, "to be grateful"); 刺激 (cì jī, "to provoke"); 激情 (jī qíng, "passion"); 激烈 (jī liè, "(of competition or fighting) intense"). There are over 90 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 激 (jī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jī: 机 (machine, opportunity), 己 (self), 几 (how many), 计 (to calculate), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 激 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 激 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 激 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.