(): border, edge, boundary

() is a Chinese character meaning “border.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #423 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, hill. Its radical form (mound) appears in many related characters such as (, (specifier) that), (dōu, all), (yuàn, courtyard).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. border
  2. edge
  3. boundary

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichill

Decomposition: ⿰阝示 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
guó jìinternational5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
shí jì shàngin fact
shí jìreality
xīng jìinterstellar
zhī jìduring
jiāo jìcommunication
jiāo jì wǔsocial dance
rén jì guān xìinterpersonal relationship
bù qiè shí jìunrealistic
guó jì xiàng qíchess
zhōu jìintercontinental
rén jìhuman relationships
jiāo jì huā(female) social butterfly
guó jì xìnginternational
bù zhuó biān jìnot to the point
tiān jìhorizon
100
Total compounds
2
As first character
37
As last character
61
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 2 as the first character, 37 as the last, and 61 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.

shí
0.673254,788 co-occurrences
guó
0.670714,861 co-occurrences
mào
0.46610,908 co-occurrences
lián
0.44140,980 co-occurrences
chǎng
0.43945,570 co-occurrences
0.4279,959 co-occurrences
chéng
0.42361,254 co-occurrences
shàng
0.415127,422 co-occurrences
0.40940,944 co-occurrences
zhī
0.39913,998 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (25)

bùqièshíjìHSK 4+

impractical; unrealistic; fanciful; impracticable

adjective
bùzhuóbiānjìHSK 4+

not to the point; wide of the mark; irrelevant; neither here nor there

phrase
Dì-Sān GuójìHSK 4+

Third International; Comintern

Dì-yī GuójìHSK 4+

First International; International Workingmen's Association

Gòngchǎn GuójìHSK 4+

Communist International; Comintern

guó jì fǎ tíngHSK 4+

International Court of Justice in The Hague

phrase
Guójì FǎyuànHSK 4+

International Court of Justice

guójì guānxìHSK 4+

international relations

noun
guójì jīchǎngHSK 4+

international airport

noun
Guójì LiánméngHSK 7+

League of Nations

guójì màoyìHSK 6+

international trade

noun
guó jì shōu zhīHSK 4+

balance of payments

phrase

Showing 12 of 25 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这次国会议吸引了来自世界各地的专家学者。

Zhè cì guójì huìyì xīyǐn le láizì shìjiè gèdì de zhuānjiā xuézhě.

This international conference attracted experts and scholars from around the world.

Irna ChineseFeb 2026

第三十三届国《古兰经》展览会开幕

dì sān shí sān jiè guó jì gǔ lán jīng zhǎn lǎn huì kāi mù

The 33rd International Quran Exhibition opened

百度新闻Feb 2026

美国12月实个人消费支出月率 0.1%,预期0...

měi guó 1 2 yuè shí jì gè rén xiāo fèi zhī chū yuè lǜ 0 . 1 , yù qī 0 . . .

The monthly rate of real personal consumption expenditures in the United States was 0.1%, and the expected 0...

百度新闻Feb 2026

美国这座机场要改名“唐纳德·特朗普国机场”

měi guó zhè zuò jī chǎng yāo gǎi míng táng nà dé tè lǎng pǔ guó jì jī chǎng

The airport in the United States will be renamed "Donald Trump International Airport"

百度新闻Feb 2026

贵金属价格持续走高,现货黄金再度站上50...

guó jì guì jīn shǔ jiè gé chí xù zǒu gāo , xiàn huò huáng jīn zài dù zhàn shǎng . . .

International precious metal prices continue to rise, spot gold again on the 50...

百度新闻Feb 2026

地域文化在国中文教育中的应用

dì yù wén huā zài guó jì zhōng wén jiào yù zhōng de yīng yòng

The Application of Regional Culture in International Chinese Language Education

Tatoeba

您能教我下国象棋吗?

Nín néng jiāo wǒ xià guójì xiàngqí ma?

Can you teach me to play chess?

Tatoeba

你实上想说什么?

Nǐ shíjìshàng xiǎng shuō shénme?

What do you really want to say?

Tatoeba

英语成为了一门国语言。

Yīngyǔ chéngwéi le yī mén guójì yǔyán.

English has become an international language.

Tatoeba

我去那个派对纯粹是为了交

Wǒqù nàge pàiduì chúncuì shì wèile jiāojì.

I attended the party just to be sociable.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 际 (jì) mean in Chinese?
际 (jì) primarily means "border." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #423 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 际 have?
际 is written with 7 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 际?
The radical associated with 际 is 阝 (mound). This radical appears in many characters related to mound.
What are the components of 际?
际 is composed of: 阝 (semantic), 示 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰阝示 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 际?
Common words with 际 include: 实际上 (shí jì shàng, "in fact"); 国际 (guó jì, "international"); 实际 (shí jì, "reality"); 星际 (xīng jì, "interstellar"); 之际 (zhī jì, "during"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 际 (jì)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jì: 机 (machine, opportunity), 鸡 (chicken), 积 (to amass), 级 (level, grade), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 际 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 际 and the traditional form is 際.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.