(jiān): to annihilate, abbr. for 殲擊機|歼击机, fighter plane

(jiān) is a Chinese character meaning “to annihilate.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1798 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a thousand 千 corpses 歹; 千 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form (death) appears in many related characters such as (, to die), (shū, (literary) to kill), (cán, to destroy).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to annihilate
  2. abbr. for 殲擊機|歼击机, fighter plane

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA thousand 千 corpses 歹; 千 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰歹千 (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

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jiān mièto wipe out
quán jiānto annihilate
jiān jī jīfighter plane
jiān jīto annihilate
zhuī jiānto pursue and kill
jù jiānto annihilate
6
Total compounds
50
As first character
50
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 6 compound words: 50 as the first character, 50 as the last, and 0 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.

miè
0.72518,240 co-occurrences
0.5795,850 co-occurrences
0.4654,746 co-occurrences
wéi
0.4623,354 co-occurrences
jūn
0.4419,066 co-occurrences
wěi
0.418462 co-occurrences
quán
0.4047,728 co-occurrences
zhàn
0.4013,702 co-occurrences
hōng
0.393324 co-occurrences
0.387132 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

xiě hǎo jiān zì xū yāo zhǎng wò zhēng què de bǐ huà shùn xù .

To write the character "jian" correctly, you need to master the proper stroke order.

LtnMar 2026

...蓝白合才去凯道? 赵少康:民进党若一个个灭 之后选战很难打

. . . lán bái gě cái qù kǎi dào ? zhào shǎo kāng : mín jìn dǎng ruò yī gè gè jiān miè zhī hòu xuǎn zhàn hěn nán dǎ

EttodayMar 2026

剑指日本对抗F-35 双座-20S列装“强军先锋飞行大队”

jiàn zhǐ rì běn duì kàng F 3 5 shuāng zuò jiān 2 0 S liè zhuāng qiáng jūn xiān fēng fēi háng dà duì

Aiming to Counter Japan’s F-35s: Two-Seat J-20Ss Enter Service with the “Vanguard Flight Squadron for Military Strengthening”

三立新聞網Mar 2026

军工专家除名 -20之父被中科院撤简历

jūn gōng zhuān jiā chú míng jiān 2 0 zhī fù bèi zhōng kē yuàn chè jiǎn lì

Defense Industry Expert Removed from Roster; "Father of the J-20" Has His Resume Removed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

共军“联合战备警巡” 10、16等28共机骚扰我海空域

gòng jūn lián gě zhàn bèi jǐng xún jiān 1 0 , jiān 1 6 děng 2 8 gòng jī sāo rǎo wǒ hǎi kōng yù

The communist army's "joint combat readiness patrol" J-10, J-16 and other 28 communist aircraft harassed our sea and airspace

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the death radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 歼 (jiān) mean in Chinese?
歼 (jiān) primarily means "to annihilate." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1798 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 歼 have?
歼 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 歼?
The radical associated with 歼 is 歹 (death). This radical appears in many characters related to death.
What are the components of 歼?
歼 is composed of: 歹 (structural), 千 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰歹千 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 歼?
Common words with 歼 include: 歼灭 (jiān miè, "to wipe out"); 全歼 (quán jiān, "to annihilate"); 歼击机 (jiān jī jī, "fighter plane"); 歼击 (jiān jī, "to annihilate"); 追歼 (zhuī jiān, "to pursue and kill"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 歼 (jiān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiān: 坚 (strong), 间 (room, between), 减 (to lower), 检 (to check), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 歼 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 歼 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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.