(): jealousy, to be jealous of

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

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

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. jealousy
  2. to be jealous of

Etymology & Origin

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 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
fèn shì jí súto be cynical
dù jíto be jealous of (sb's achievements etc)
jí hènto hate out of jealousy
jí è rú chóu(idiom) to hate evil as one hates an enemy
jí xián dù néng(idiom) to envy the virtuous and talented
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)
8
Total compounds
50
As first character
13
As last character
38
As middle character

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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.90522,225 co-occurrences
fèn
0.544984 co-occurrences
hèn
0.5241,566 co-occurrences
0.4992,400 co-occurrences
qiú
0.4811,272 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.472156 co-occurrences
0.435480 co-occurrences
è
0.408510 co-occurrences
lán
0.38354 co-occurrences
yuàn
0.376222 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

dù xián jí néngHSK 7+

see 嫉賢妒能|嫉贤妒能[ji2 xian2 du4 neng2]

phrase
fènshìjísúHSK 7+

to be cynical; to be embittered

phrase
jí è rú chóuHSK 7+

(idiom) to hate evil as one hates an enemy

phrase
jí xián dù néngHSK 7+

(idiom) to envy the virtuous and talented

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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.

Tatoeba

妒是谋杀的动机。

Jídù shì móushā de dòngjī.

Jealousy was the motive for the murder.

Tatoeba

许多人妒汤姆的成功。

Xǔduō rén jídù Tāngmǔ de chénggōng.

Many people envy Tom's success.

Tatoeba

他们妒我们的成功。

Tāmen jídù wǒmen de chénggōng.

They are jealous of our success.

Tatoeba

我想我感到有点妒。

Wǒ xiǎng wǒ gǎndào yǒudiǎn jídù.

I suppose I felt a little jealous.

Tatoeba

她只是妒你年轻。

Tā zhǐshì jídù nǐ niánqīng.

She's just jealous of your youth.

Tatoeba

「我已经找到令他妒的方法了。」「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.

Tatoeba

没有不存在妒的爱。

Méiyǒu bù cúnzài jídù de ài.

No love without envy.

Tatoeba

妒让他那样做。

Jídù ràng tā nàyàng zuò.

Jealousy made him do that.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

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), 鸡 (chicken), 级 (level, grade), 急 (urgent), 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 with real-time feedback

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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.