棘 (jí): thorns

棘 (jí) is a Chinese character meaning “thorns.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 朿 (phonetic) and 朿 (phonetic). It ranks #2676 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 棘 thorn. Its radical form 木 (tree) appears in many related characters such as 本 (běn, (bound form) root), 机 (jī, machine, opportunity), 条 (tiáo, strip).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 木 tree12 strokesFrequency #2676朿 phonetic朿 phonetic

Definitions

  1. thorns

Etymology & Origin

棘

pictophoneticthorn

Decomposition: ⿰朿朿 (layout: left-right)

Components:朿phonetic朿phonetic

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
棘手jí shǒuthorny (problem)
荆棘jīng jíthistles and thorns
棘轮jí lúnratchet
披荆斩棘pī jīng zhǎn jílit. to cut one's way through thistles and thorns (idiom)
棘皮动物jí pí dòng wùechinoderm, the phylum containing sea urchins, sea cucumbers etc
棘鼻青岛龙jí bí qīng dǎo lóngTsintaosaurus spinorhinus, a 10 meter long hadrosaur with a single horn on its duck-billed snout
沙棘属shā jí shǔgenus Hippophae
棘楚jí chǔthorny problem
沙棘shā jísea-buckthorn
食荼卧棘shí tú wò jíto eat bitter fruit and lie on thorns (idiom)
腔棘鱼qiāng jí yúcoelacanth
荆棘载途jīng jí zài túlit. a path covered in brambles
12
Total compounds
42
As first character
33
As last character
25
As middle character

棘 appears in 12 compound words: 42 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 25 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 棘 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

臀tún
0.74217,166 co-occurrences
硬yìng
0.71939,630 co-occurrences
枚méi
0.68529,790 co-occurrences
背bèi
0.58922,122 co-occurrences
荆jīng
0.5342,418 co-occurrences
鲨shā
0.469624 co-occurrences
眶kuàng
0.448342 co-occurrences
刺cì
0.4454,266 co-occurrences
披pī
0.4271,140 co-occurrences
肢zhī
0.417894 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

棘皮动物jípí dòngwùHSK 7+

echinoderm

noun
披荆斩棘pījīngzhǎnjíHSK 7+

to overcome different difficulties and obstacles

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

棘手的问题需要智慧解决。

Jíshǒu de wèntí xūyào zhìhuì jiějué.

Thorny problems require wisdom to solve.

BastillepostApr 2026

拉丁美洲耶稣受难日巡游 信徒赤脚戴荆棘冠冕展虔诚

lā dīng měi zhōu yē 稣 shòu nán rì xún yóu xìn tú chì jiǎo dài jīng jí guàn 冕 zhǎn qián chéng

東方日報Mar 2026

网骗成各国最棘手挑战 经济损失令人震惊

wǎng piàn chéng gè guó zuì jí shǒu tiāo zhàn jīng jì sǔn shī lìng rén zhèn jīng

Online fraud has become the most difficult challenge in various countries The economic losses are shocking

Tatoeba

对于这个棘手的问题，无论我尝试多少次，结果都会以失败告终。

Duìyú zhège jíshǒu de wèntí, wúlùn wǒ chángshì duōshao cì, jiéguǒ dōu huì yǐ shībài gàozhōng.

Regardless how many times I try to solve this nasty problem, I always end up failing.

Character Family

木 Radical Family — Characters sharing the tree radical

杯bēi本běn果guǒ机jī来lái树shù条tiáo校jiào样yàng桌zhuō

Related Characters

本běn机jī条tiáo来lái杯bēi果guǒ树shù校jiào样yàng桌zhuō

Homophones — Characters pronounced jí

机jī鸡jī级jí急jí几jī己jǐ计jì记jì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 棘 (jí) mean in Chinese?
棘 (jí) primarily means "thorns." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2676 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 棘 and 策?
棘 (jí) and 策 (cè) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 木 vs 竹 (same 朿 component).
How many strokes does 棘 have?
棘 is written with 12 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 棘?
The radical associated with 棘 is 木 (tree). This radical appears in many characters related to tree.
What are the components of 棘?
棘 is composed of: 朿 (phonetic), 朿 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰朿朿 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 棘?
Common words with 棘 include: 棘手 (jí shǒu, "thorny (problem)"); 荆棘 (jīng jí, "thistles and thorns"); 棘轮 (jí lún, "ratchet"); 披荆斩棘 (pī jīng zhǎn jí, "lit. to cut one's way through thistles and thorns (idiom)"); 棘皮动物 (jí pí dòng wù, "echinoderm, the phylum containing sea urchins, sea cucumbers etc"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 棘 (jí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jí: 机 (machine, opportunity), 鸡 (chicken), 级 (level, grade), 急 (urgent), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 棘 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 棘 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.