(jiā): home, family

(jiā) is a Chinese character meaning “home, family.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #56 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, roof. Its radical form (roof) appears in many related characters such as (, guest, customer), (, it), (ān, safe, peace).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. home, family

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticroof

Decomposition: ⿱宀豕 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

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
pronoundà jiāeveryone1
guó jiācountry3
nounjiā tíngfamily4
nounjiā rénfamily member1
nounzhuān jiāexpert5
pronounrén jiāhousehold6
nounzuò jiāauthor4
nounjiā zhǎnghead of a household4
verbbān jiāto move house3
nounjiā xiānghometown4
jiā jùfurniture4
nounjiā yuánhome6
nounhuà jiāpainter3
nounlǎo jiānative place4
nounjiā shǔfamily member6
nounjiā wùhousehold duties5
nounjiā jūhome6
nounchǎng jiāfactory6
nounjiā chángthe daily life of a family6
nounjiā diànhousehold electric appliance5
nounshāng jiāmerchant5
nounjiā jiā hù hùeach and every family (idiom)6
qiān jiā wàn hùevery family (idiom)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jiā huovariant of 家伙[jia1 huo5]
huí jiāto return home
huáng jiāroyal
guǎn jiā(old) butler
dú jiāexclusive
jiā jiàofamily education
dào jiāperfect
chéng jiāto settle down and get married (of a man)
jiā dàngfamilial property
chóu jiāenemy
ān jiāto settle down
jiā chǎnfamily property
jiā fù(polite) my father
100
Total compounds
42
As first character
57
As last character
1
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 42 as the first character, 57 as the last, and 1 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.

tíng
0.658605,735 co-occurrences
wán
0.630404,850 co-occurrences
0.576609,024 co-occurrences
guó
0.5651,591,444 co-occurrences
huáng
0.463199,908 co-occurrences
xué
0.461548,208 co-occurrences
zhuān
0.445155,672 co-occurrences
zuò
0.430712,386 co-occurrences
0.42487,336 co-occurrences
zhé
0.42163,570 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (74)

āijiā'āihùHSK 7+

from door to door; from family to family; from house to house

phrase
ài guó rú jiāHSK 3+

to love one's country as one's own family (praise for a virtuous ruler)

phrase
ānjiāluòhùHSK 4+

to set up home in a new place; to settle in a new place

phrase
bǎijiāzhēngmíngHSK 7+

contention of the Hundred Schools of Thought; to let a hundred schools of thought contend

phrase
bàn jiā jiā jiǔHSK 5+

to play house (Tw)

phrase
bīng jiā cháng shìHSK 6+

commonplace in military operations (idiom)

phrase
dǎjiājiéshèHSK 7+

to loot; to plunder

phrase
dàjiāguīxiùHSK 7+

maiden in a rich and influential family

phrase
dà jiā huǒ rHSK 4+

(coll.) everyone; all of us; you folks

phrase
dānqīn jiātíngHSK 4+

single-parent family

noun
dì zhèn xué jiāHSK 5+

seismologist; earthquake scientist

phrase
fú jiā fàn zháiHSK 6+

lit. to live on a boat; to drift from place to place (idiom)

phrase

Showing 12 of 74 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

是最温暖的地方,无论走多远都会想念。

Jiā shì zuì wēnnuǎn de dìfang, wúlùn zǒu duō yuǎn dōu huì xiǎngniàn.

Home is the warmest place; no matter how far you go, you will miss it.

百度新闻Feb 2026

视频丨繁荣昌盛,越来越好!这个春节听听大给祖国的..

shì pín 丨 fán róng chāng shèng , yuè lái yuè hǎo ! zhè gè chūn jié tīng tīng dà jiā gěi zǔ guó de . .

Video丨Prosperity and prosperity, getting better and better! This Spring Festival, listen to what everyone has for the motherland:

百度新闻Feb 2026

...海乐高乐园度假区首个春节表现亮眼,成亲子庭出行..

. . . hǎi lè gāo lè yuán dù jiǎ qū shǒu gè chūn jié biǎo xiàn liàng yǎn , chéng qīn zǐ jiā tíng chū háng . .

... Haile Highland Resort's first Spring Festival performance was eye-catching, and the family traveled as a parent-child family:

百度新闻Feb 2026

...停留3秒 为这5位空军勇士献花!今天是万团圆的..

. . . tíng liú miǎo wéi zhè wèi kōng jūn yǒng shì xiàn huā ! jīn tiān shì mò jiā tuán yuán de . .

... Stop for 3 seconds and lay flowers for these 5 Air Force warriors! Today is the day of family reunion...

百度新闻Feb 2026

守护万灯火,90后山东小伙的萧山变电站除夕夜

shǒu hù mò jiā dēng huǒ , hòu shān dōng xiǎo huǒ de xiāo shān biàn diàn zhàn chú xī yè

Guarding the lights, 90 years after the Shandong boy's Xiaoshan substation New Year's Eve

百度新闻Feb 2026

普通人也能开飞机回过年了?飞2小时油费只要200..

pǔ tōng rén yě néng kāi fēi jī huí jiā guò nián le ? fēi xiǎo shí yóu fèi zhī yāo . .

Can ordinary people really fly home for the New Year? A two-hour flight costs just 200 yuan in fuel...

Tatoeba

你是从哪个国来的?

Nǐ shì cóng nǎge guójiā lái de?

What country are you from?

Tatoeba

你会去访问其他国吗?

Nǐ huì qù fǎngwèn qítā guójiā ma?

Are you going to visit any other countries?

Tatoeba

都喜欢音乐吗?

Dàjiā dōu xǐhuan yīnyuè ma?

Does everybody love music?

Tatoeba

我现在可以回吗?

Wǒ xiànzài kěyǐ huíjiā ma?

Can I go home now?

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiā

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 家 (jiā) mean in Chinese?
家 (jiā) primarily means "home, family." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #56 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 家 and 逐?
家 (jiā) and 逐 (zhú) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 宀 vs 辶 (same 豕 component).
How many strokes does 家 have?
家 is written with 10 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 家?
The radical associated with 家 is 宀 (roof). This radical appears in many characters related to roof.
What are the components of 家?
家 is composed of: 宀 (semantic), 豕 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱宀豕 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 家?
Common words with 家 include: 大家 (dà jiā, "everyone"); 家伙 (jiā huo, "variant of 家伙[jia1 huo5]"); 回家 (huí jiā, "to return home"); 国家 (guó jiā, "country"); 家庭 (jiā tíng, "family"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 家 (jiā)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiā: 加 (Canada (abbr. for 加拿大[Jia1 na2 da4])), 佳 (beautiful), 茄 (phonetic character used in loanwords for the sound "jia", although 夾|夹 is more common), 嘉 (excellent), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 家 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 家 and the traditional form is 傢.

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.