记 (jì): to remember, to record

记 (jì) is a Chinese character meaning “to remember, to record.” Classified as HSK Level 2 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 讠 (structural) and 己 (structural). It ranks #306 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 记 a private 己 note 讠; 己 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 讠 (speech) appears in many related characters such as 认 (rèn, to recognize, to admit), 识 (shí, to know, knowledge), 诉 (sù, to complain).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to remember, to record

Etymology & Origin

记

ideographicA private 己 note 讠; 己 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰讠己 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 记

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
记得verbjì deto remember2
记录verb/nounjì lùto record5
忘记verbwàng jìto forget3
记忆verb/nounjì yìto remember5
记者nounjì zhěreporter4
登记verbdēng jìto register (one's name)5
日记nounrì jìdiary4
笔记本nounbǐ jì běnnotebook (stationery)3
笔记nounbǐ jìto take down (in writing)3
记载verbjì zǎito write down5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
记住verbjì zhuto remember
标记verbbiāo jìsign
记号nounjì haomark
印记nounyìn jìimprint
铭记verbmíng jìto engrave in one's memory
记忆力nounjì yì lìfaculty of memory
惦记verbdiàn jìto think of
记性nounjì xingmemory (ability to retain information)
牢记verbláo jìto keep in mind
记事本nounjì shì běnnotebook
记事verbjì shìto keep a record of events
胎记nountāi jìbirthmark
传记nounzhuàn jìbiography
记者会jì zhě huìpress conference
记录片nounjì lù piànvariant of 紀錄片|纪录片
102
Total compounds
36
As first character
51
As last character
13
As middle character

记 appears in 102 compound words: 36 as the first character, 51 as the last, and 13 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 记 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

载zài
0.70666,916 co-occurrences
书shū
0.647213,065 co-occurrences
忆yì
0.63415,661 co-occurrences
录lù
0.57467,768 co-occurrences
副fù
0.55751,352 co-occurrences
委wěi
0.51397,339 co-occurrences
党dǎng
0.46137,748 co-occurrences
笔bǐ
0.4587,053 co-occurrences
标biāo
0.45615,838 co-occurrences
忘wàng
0.4453,409 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (11)

博闻强记bówénqiángjìHSK 4+

synonym of 博學強記 /博学强记 (bóxuéqiángjì, “to have a lot of knowledge and a good memory”)

phrase
出埃及记Chū-Āijíjì

Exodus (second book of the Bible)

记忆犹新jìyìyóuxīnHSK 5+

to remain fresh in one's memory; to remember vividly

phrase
老残游记lǎo cán yóu jìHSK 6+

The Travels of Lao Tsan, novel by late Qing novelist Liu E 劉鶚|刘鹗

phrase
尼希米记NíxīmǐjìHSK 7+

Nehemiah (book of the Bible)

潜神默记qián shén mò jìHSK 6+

to devote oneself to a task in silence (idiom)

phrase
死记硬背sǐjì yìngbèiHSK 5+

to memorise without understanding; to learn by rote; to cram

phrase
新闻记者xīn wén jì zhěHSK 3+

journalist

phrase
以斯帖记YǐsītiējìHSK 7+

Esther (book of the Bible)

Showing 9 of 11 idioms containing 记.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请记下这个电话号码,以后有问题可以直接联系。

Qǐng jì xià zhè gè diànhuà hàomǎ, yǐhòu yǒu wèntí kěyǐ zhíjiē liánxì.

Please write down this phone number; you can contact directly if you have questions later.

鉅亨網 - 財經新聞、全球指數、股市報價、商品行情、理財投資Feb 2026

扩产也来不及!全球记忆体荒将成AI竞争关键瓶颈 又一矽谷大老...

kuò chǎn yě lái bù jí ! quán qiú jì yì tǐ huāng jiāng chéng A I jìng zhēng guān jiàn píng jǐng yòu yī 矽 gǔ dà lǎo . . .

It's too late to expand production! The global memory shortage will become a key bottleneck in AI competition, another Silicon Valley veteran...

百度新闻Feb 2026

寻马记|能看到86匹灵动骏马的北齐壁画博物馆

xún mǎ jì néng kàn dào 8 6 pǐ líng dòng jùn mǎ de běi qí bì huà bó wù guǎn

The Northern Qi Mural Museum where you can see 86 smart horses

百度新闻Feb 2026

寻马记|以“马”为眼,感受汉代文景之治

xún mǎ jì yǐ mǎ wéi yǎn , gǎn shòu hàn dài wén jǐng zhī zhì

Horse Hunt|Horse as the eye, feel the rule of Wenjing in the Han Dynasty

百度新闻Feb 2026

列国鉴|记者观察:食品贴上警示标签 智利欲全民瘦身...

liè guó jiàn jì zhě guàn chá shí pǐn tiē shǎng jǐng shì biāo qiān zhì lì yù quán mín shòu shēn . . .

International Insights | Journalist's Perspective: Chile Aims for Nationwide Weight Loss with Warning Labels on Food Products...

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层·驻外记者回乡手记丨在中国,感受火箭一飞..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng zhù wài jì zhě huí xiāng shǒu jì 丨 zài zhōng guó , gǎn shòu huǒ jiàn yī fēi . .

Spring Festival at the Grassroots Level: Correspondents' Homecoming Notes丨In China, Witnessing a Rocket's Soaring Flight...

Tatoeba

你记不记得我们认识的那一天?

Nǐ jì bù jìde wǒmen rènshi de nà yī tiān?

Do you remember the day we met?

Tatoeba

我怎能忘记那些日子呢?

Wǒ zěnnéng wàngjì nàxiē rìzi ne?

How can I forget those days?

Tatoeba

没有人忘记做功课吧?

Méiyǒurén wàngjì zuò gōngkè ba?

No one has forgotten to do the homework, right?

Tatoeba

你把数字记熟了吗?

Nǐ bǎ shùzì jì shú le ma?

Have you learned the number by heart?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jì

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 记 (jì) mean in Chinese?
记 (jì) primarily means "to remember, to record." It is classified as HSK Level 2, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #306 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 记 have?
记 is written with 5 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 记?
The radical associated with 记 is 讠 (speech). This radical appears in many characters related to speech.
What are the components of 记?
记 is composed of: 讠 (structural), 己 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰讠己 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 记?
Common words with 记 include: 记得 (jì de, "to remember"); 记录 (jì lù, "to record"); 忘记 (wàng jì, "to forget"); 记住 (jì zhu, "to remember"); 记忆 (jì yì, "to remember"). There are over 102 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 记 (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 记 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 记 and the traditional form is 記.

Practice writing 记 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.