饥 (jī): (bound form) hungry

饥 (jī) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) hungry.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 饣 (semantic) and 几 (phonetic). It ranks #2125 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 饥 food. Its radical form 饣 (eat) appears in many related characters such as 饭 (fàn, meal, rice), 饿 (è, hungry), 馆 (guǎn, restaurant, hall).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) hungry

Etymology & Origin

饥

pictophoneticfood

Decomposition: ⿰饣几 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 饥

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
饥饿adjectivejī èhunger6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
饥渴adjectivejī kěhungry and thirsty
饥荒nounjī huāngcrop failure
饥肠辘辘phrasejī cháng lù lù(idiom) stomach rumbling with hunger
如饥似渴phraserú jī sì kěto hunger for sth (idiom)
饥寒交迫adjectivejī hán jiāo pòbeset by hunger and cold (idiom)
充饥verbchōng jīto allay one's hunger
画饼充饥phrasehuà bǐng chōng jīlit. to allay one's hunger using a picture of a cake
饱人不知饿人饥bǎo rén bù zhī è rén jīThe well-fed cannot know how the starving suffer (idiom).
饥不择食phrasejī bù zé shíwhen hungry, you can't pick what you eat (idiom)
饱汉不知饿汉饥phrasebǎo hàn bù zhī è hàn jīThe well-fed cannot know how the starving suffer (idiom).
积谷防饥phrasejī gǔ fáng jīstoring grain against a famine
易饥症yì jī zhèngbulimia
饱暖思淫欲,饥寒起盗心bǎo nuǎn sī yín yù , jī hán qǐ dào xīnlechery springs from warmth and nourishment, kleptomania springs from hunger and cold (idiom)
啼饥号寒phrasetí jī háo hán(idiom) to cry from hunger and cold
漏脯充饥lòu fǔ chōng jī(lit.) to eat rotten meat to assuage hunger (idiom)
19
Total compounds
37
As first character
32
As last character
32
As middle character

饥 appears in 19 compound words: 37 as the first character, 32 as the last, and 32 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 饥 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

饿è
0.8333,620 co-occurrences
荒huāng
0.6944,282 co-occurrences
渴kě
0.518314 co-occurrences
寒hán
0.479446 co-occurrences
馁něi
0.47716 co-occurrences
瘟wēn
0.46398 co-occurrences
挨āi
0.43752 co-occurrences
疲pí
0.433108 co-occurrences
贫pín
0.429154 co-occurrences
惫bèi
0.42518 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (10)

画饼充饥huàbǐngchōngjīHSK 6+

to feed on illusions; (of something attractive-looking) to be of no actual use; like a pie in the sky

phrase
饥不择食jībùzéshíHSK 6+

to be not choosy when one is hungry or when matters are urgent; beggars can't be choosers

phrase
饥寒交迫jīhánjiāopòHSK 6+

cold and hungry at the same time; extremely impoverished

adjective
积谷防饥jīgǔfángjīHSK 7+

to save for a rainy day

phrase
忍饥挨饿rěn jī ái èHSK 7+

starving; famished

phrase
如饥似渴rújīsìkěHSK 6+

as if thirsting or hungering for something; with great eagerness

phrase
饥馑荐臻jījǐnjiànzhēn

famine occurring year after year

phrase
啼饥号寒tíjīháohánHSK 6+

to cry out in hunger and cold; to be poverty-stricken

phrase
饥肠辘辘jīchánglùlùHSK 6+

one's stomach rumbles with hunger

phrase

Showing 9 of 10 idioms containing 饥.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他饥了,走进一家小餐馆点了碗面。

tā jī le , zǒu jìn yī jiā xiǎo cān guǎn diǎn le wǎn miàn .

He was hungry, so he walked into a small restaurant and ordered a bowl of noodles.

爱范儿Aug 2026

而这种对高带宽与低延迟的饥渴,在端侧 AI 场景下被放大了数倍。

ér zhè zhǒng duì gāo dài kuān yǔ dī yán chí de jī kě , zài duān cè A I chǎng jǐng xià bèi fàng dà le shǔ bèi .

And this demand for high bandwidth and low latency is amplified several times over in edge AI scenarios.

中国新闻网·生活Jul 2026

煮好的鹰嘴豆,作为佐餐或充饥的小零食都可以。

zhǔ hǎo de yīng zuǐ dòu , zuò wéi zuǒ cān huò chōng jī de xiǎo líng shí dōu kě yǐ .

Cooked chickpeas can be served as a side dish or enjoyed as a snack.

中国新闻网·体育Jul 2026

英格兰队主教练图赫尔表示,球队不会刻意放大历史恩怨,将带着强烈的饥饿感争夺胜利。

yīng gé lán duì zhǔ jiào liàn tú hè ěr biǎo shì , qiú duì bù huì kè yì fàng dà lì shǐ ēn yuàn , jiāng dài zhe qiáng liè de jī è gǎn zhēng duó shèng lì .

England head coach Tuchel said the team will not dwell on past rivalries and will compete for victory with a strong hunger to win.

HketApr 2026

伊朗战争|化肥短缺威胁粮食安全 饥饿人口恐创新高

yī lǎng zhàn zhēng huà féi duǎn quē wēi xié liáng shí ān quán jī è rén kǒu kǒng chuàng xīn gāo

Iran War | Fertilizer Shortage Threatens Food Security; Number of People Facing Hunger Could Reach a Record High

Hk01.comMar 2026

成军24年5566参演《饥饿游戏》 意外“撞车”跌倒惨被嘲“碰瓷”

chéng jūn 2 4 nián 5 5 6 6 cān yǎn jī è yóu xì yì wài zhuàng chē diē dǎo cǎn bèi cháo pèng cí

After 24 Years in the Industry, 5566 Appears in *The Hunger Games*; Unexpected "Collision" Leads to Fall, Sparking Ridicule Over "Staged Accident"

Tatoeba

你尝过真正饥饿的滋味吗?

Nǐ cháng guo zhēnzhèng jī'è de zīwèi ma?

Do you know what it is like to be really hungry?

Tatoeba

你这样就是画饼充饥!

Nǐ zhèyàng jiùshì huàbǐngchōngjī!

You're just comforting yourself with a fantasy!

Tatoeba

许多工人死于饥饿。

Xǔduō gōngrén sǐyú jī'è.

Many of the workers died of hunger.

Tatoeba

在非洲有许多孩子死于饥饿。

Zài Fēizhōu yǒu xǔduō háizi sǐ yú jī'è.

Many children die of starvation in Africa.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 饣 (food) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced jī

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 饥 (jī) mean in Chinese?
饥 (jī) primarily means "(bound form) hungry." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2125 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 饥 and 铅?
饥 (jī) and 铅 (qiān) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 饣 vs 钅 (same 几 component).
How many strokes does 饥 have?
饥 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 饥?
The radical associated with 饥 is 饣 (eat). This radical appears in many characters related to eat.
What are the components of 饥?
饥 is composed of: 饣 (semantic), 几 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰饣几 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 饥?
Common words with 饥 include: 饥饿 (jī è, "hunger"); 饥渴 (jī kě, "hungry and thirsty"); 饥荒 (jī huāng, "crop failure"); 饥肠辘辘 (jī cháng lù lù, "(idiom) stomach rumbling with hunger"); 如饥似渴 (rú jī sì kě, "to hunger for sth (idiom)"). There are over 19 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 饥 (jī)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jī: 肌 (muscle), 玑 ((literary) baroque pearl), 讥 (to ridicule), 机 (machine, opportunity), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 饥 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 饥 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 饥 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.