肩 (jiān): shoulder, to shoulder (responsibilities etc)

肩 (jiān) is a Chinese character meaning “shoulder.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 户 (structural) and ⺼ (structural). It ranks #1407 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 肩 a man bringing home meat ⺼ for the family 户. Its radical form 肉 (meat) appears in many related characters such as 肉 (ròu, meat), 能 (néng, can), 背 (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. shoulder
  2. to shoulder (responsibilities etc)

Etymology & Origin

肩

ideographicA man bringing home meat ⺼ for the family 户

Decomposition: ⿸户⺼ (layout: surround-from-upper-left)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 肩

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
肩膀nounjiān bǎngshoulder6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
并肩verbbìng jiānalongside
并肩作战bìng jiān zuò zhàn(idiom) to fight side by side
披肩nounpī jiāncape
肩负verbjiān fùto shoulder (a burden)
擦肩而过phrasecā jiān ér guòto brush past
耸肩verbsǒng jiānto shrug one's shoulders
肩胛骨nounjiān jiǎ gǔscapula
肩头nounjiān tóuon one's shoulders
肩章nounjiān zhāngepaulet
垫肩noundiàn jiānshoulder pad
肩胛nounjiān jiǎshoulder
坎肩nounkǎn jiānsleeveless jacket (usually cotton)
携手并肩xié shǒu bìng jiānhand in hand and shoulder to shoulder
勾肩搭背phrasegōu jiān dā bèi(idiom) arms around each other's shoulders
双肩包shuāng jiān bāobackpack
48
Total compounds
33
As first character
35
As last character
31
As middle character

肩 appears in 48 compound words: 33 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 31 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 肩 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

膀bǎng
0.7064,591 co-occurrences
膊bó
0.569304 co-occurrences
扛gāng
0.546581 co-occurrences
耸sǒng
0.531193 co-occurrences
披pī
0.5131,130 co-occurrences
擦cā
0.480586 co-occurrences
章zhāng
0.4472,656 co-occurrences
颈jǐng
0.444159 co-occurrences
骨gǔ
0.4351,288 co-occurrences
挎kuà
0.42714 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

挨肩擦背āi jiān cā bèiHSK 7+

(idiom) to be crowded together

phrase
并肩作战bìng jiān zuò zhànHSK 6+

(idiom) to fight side by side; (by extension) to join forces

phrase
擦肩而过cājiān'érguòHSK 6+

to brush past (someone, opportunity, death, etc.)

phrase
勾肩搭背gōujiāndābèiHSK 7+

to throw one's arm around someone's shoulder; (figuratively) to be on intimate terms with one another

phrase
摩肩接踵mójiānjiēzhǒngHSK 6+

to be crowded; to be filled with people.

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他拍了拍我的肩膀,鼓励我不要放弃。

Tā pāi le pāi wǒ de jiānbǎng, gǔlì wǒ bùyào fàngqì.

He patted my shoulder, encouraging me not to give up.

99 健康网Mar 2026

少女第一次做ae一般多少秒正常?肩颈酸痛是姿势不良的早期信号吗

shǎo nǚ dì yī cì zuò a e yī bān duō shǎo miǎo zhèng cháng ? jiān jǐng suān tòng shì zī shì bù liáng de zǎo qī xìn hào ma

How many seconds is normal for a girl to do AE for the first time? Is shoulder and neck pain an early sign of poor posture?

NewsFeb 2026

赵露思传执刘亦菲二摊 懒理是非骚香肩卖萌

zhào lù sī chuán zhí liú yì 菲 èr tān lǎn lǐ shì fēi sāo xiāng jiān mài méng

Zhao Lusi passed on Liu Yifei's second stall and was lazy to deal with right and wrong

中時新聞網Feb 2026

刘雨柔被传老公想离婚 深夜再发声“一肩扛起所有压力”

liú yǔ róu bèi chuán lǎo gōng xiǎng lí hūn shēn yè zài fā shēng yī jiān gāng qǐ suǒ yǒu yā lì

Liu Yurou was rumored to want a divorce and spoke out late at night to "shoulder all the pressure"

風傳媒Feb 2026

...出游路线“省钱又不容易塞车”管制路段+路肩开放一次看

. . . chū yóu lù xiàn shěng qián yòu bù róng yì sāi chē guǎn zhì lù duàn lù jiān kāi fàng yī cì kàn

... The travel route is "cost-saving and not easy to get stuck in traffic", the controlled road section + shoulder is open to see at once

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

長假結束腰背痛肩頸僵假日症候群? 聯新國際:核心斷線

長 jiǎ 結 shù yāo bèi tòng jiān 頸 jiāng jiǎ rì zhèng hòu qún ? 聯 xīn 國 際 hé xīn 斷 線

Post-Holiday Syndrome: Back Pain and Stiff Shoulders After the Long Break? Lianxin International: Core Disconnection

Tatoeba

我把盒子扛在肩上。

Wǒ bǎ hézi gāng zài jiān shàng.

I carried the box on my shoulder.

Tatoeba

她把头枕在母亲的肩膀上。

Tā bǎtóu zhěn zài mǔqīn de jiānbǎng shàng.

She rested her head on her mother's shoulder.

Tatoeba

汤姆给玛丽冷的肩膀。

Tāngmǔ gěi Mǎlì lěng de jiānbǎng.

Tom gave Mary the cold shoulder.

Tatoeba

垂直的金发滑过她的肩膀。

Chuízhí de jīnfà huá guo tā de jiānbǎng.

Straight golden hair slides over her shoulder.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 肩 (jiān) mean in Chinese?
肩 (jiān) primarily means "shoulder." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1407 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 肩 have?
肩 is written with 8 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 肩?
The radical associated with 肩 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 肩?
肩 is composed of: 户 (structural), ⺼ (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿸户⺼ with a surround-from-upper-left layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 肩?
Common words with 肩 include: 肩膀 (jiān bǎng, "shoulder"); 并肩 (bìng jiān, "alongside"); 并肩作战 (bìng jiān zuò zhàn, "(idiom) to fight side by side"); 披肩 (pī jiān, "cape"); 肩负 (jiān fù, "to shoulder (a burden)"). There are over 48 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 肩 (jiān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiān: 间 (room, between), 见 (to see), 件 (item, matter), 建 (to establish), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 肩 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 肩 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 肩 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.