季 (jì): season, the last month of a season, fourth or youngest amongst brothers

季 (jì) is a Chinese character meaning “season.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 禾 (structural) and 子 (structural). It ranks #1271 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 季 the time for planting seeds 子 of grain 禾. Its radical form 子 (child) appears in many related characters such as 子 (zǐ, son), 字 (zì, letter), 学 (xué, to learn).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. season
  2. the last month of a season
  3. fourth or youngest amongst brothers

Etymology & Origin

季

ideographicThe time for planting seeds 子 of grain 禾

Decomposition: ⿱禾子 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 季

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
季节nounjì jiétime3
季度nounjì dùquarter of a year5
四季nounsì jìfour seasons, namely: spring 春, summer 夏, autumn 秋 and winter 冬3
季军nounjì jūnthird in a race6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
赛季nounsài jìseason (sports)
夏季nounxià jìsummer
秋季nounqiū jìautumn
冬季noundōng jìwinter
春季nounchūn jìspringtime
雨季nounyǔ jìrainy season
季风nounjì fēngmonsoon
季节性nounjì jié xìngseasonal
旺季nounwàng jìbusy season
季刊nounjì kānquarterly publication
花季nounhuā jìyouthful time
一年四季phraseyī nián sì jìall year round
淡季noundàn jìoff season
旱季hàn jìdry season
换季huàn jìthe season changes
68
Total compounds
38
As first character
41
As last character
21
As middle character

季 appears in 68 compound words: 38 as the first character, 41 as the last, and 21 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 季 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

冬dōng
0.55054,277 co-occurrences
夏xià
0.53780,619 co-occurrences
第dì
0.532252,180 co-occurrences
秋qiū
0.53127,658 co-occurrences
赛sài
0.50097,402 co-occurrences
匹pǐ
0.49913,304 co-occurrences
春chūn
0.48426,974 co-occurrences
球qiú
0.47468,034 co-occurrences
绩jì
0.461110 co-occurrences
束shù
0.45419,498 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

伯仲叔季bózhòngshūjìHSK 7+

eldest, second, third and youngest of brothers; order of seniority among brothers

phrase
卡拉季奇KǎlājìqíHSK 4+

a transliteration of the Serbo-Croatian surname Karadžić

四季如春sìjìrúchūnHSK 3+

to experience a moderate and pleasant climate throughout the year

verb
一年四季yīniánsìjìHSK 3+

all year round

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

季字在日常生活中使用频率中等。

jì zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ zhōng děng .

The character "季" is used moderately frequently in daily life.

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

受冬季风暴影响 美国数千架次航班被取消

shòu dōng jì fēng bào yǐng xiǎng měi guó shǔ qiān jià cì háng bān bèi qǔ xiāo

Thousands of flights in the United States were canceled due to the winter storm

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

滙控季息料近3.3元增17% 大行估50亿恒生...

滙 kòng jì xī liào jìn 3 . 3 yuán zēng 1 7 dà háng gū 5 0 yì héng shēng . . .

HSBC Holdings' quarterly interest rate is expected to increase by 17% by nearly 3.3 yuan, and major banks estimate 5 billion Hang Seng...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

巴菲特执掌的最后一季 波克夏上季依然卖超美股

bā 菲 tè zhí zhǎng de zuì hòu yī jì bō kè xià shàng jì yī rán mài chāo měi gǔ

Buffett's last season at the helm Berkshire still sold more than U.S. stocks last season

InvestingFeb 2026

Banca Generali第四季度业绩创纪录但股价下跌

B a n c a G e n e r a l i dì sì jì dù yè jì chuàng jì lù dàn gǔ jià xià diē

Banca Generali posted record fourth-quarter results but shares fell

百度新闻Feb 2026

(外代一线)美国加州遭遇冬季风暴袭击

( wài dài yī xiàn ) měi guó jiā zhōu zāo yù dōng jì fēng bào xí jī

California, USA, was hit by a winter storm

Tatoeba

他们每年冬季去野泽滑雪。

Tāmen měinián dōngjì qù yězé huáxuě.

They go skiing at Nozawa every winter.

Tatoeba

你上个夏季在波士顿吗?

Nǐ shàngge xiàjì zài Bōshìdùn ma?

Were you in Boston last summer?

Tatoeba

企业第一季度收益大幅增长。

Qǐyè dìyījìdù shōuyì dàfú zēngzhǎng.

Corporate earnings in the first quarter improved sharply.

Tatoeba

根据天气预报,雨季下周会开始。

Gēnjù tiānqìyùbào, yǔjì xiàzhōu huì kāishǐ.

According to the weather report, the rainy season will start next week.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 季 (jì) mean in Chinese?
季 (jì) primarily means "season." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #1271 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 季 have?
季 is written with 8 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 季?
The radical associated with 季 is 子 (child). This radical appears in many characters related to child.
What are the components of 季?
季 is composed of: 禾 (structural), 子 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱禾子 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 季?
Common words with 季 include: 赛季 (sài jì, "season (sports)"); 季节 (jì jié, "time"); 季度 (jì dù, "quarter of a year"); 夏季 (xià jì, "summer"); 秋季 (qiū jì, "autumn"). There are over 68 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 季 (jì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jì: 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 季 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 季 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 季 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.