(jiān): to supervise, to inspect, jail

(jiān) is a Chinese character meaning “to supervise.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural). It ranks #838 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation
HSK 6Radical: dish10 strokesFrequency #838 structural

Definitions

  1. to supervise
  2. to inspect
  3. jail

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
verbjiān dūto control6
verbjiān cèto monitor6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jiān yùprison
jiān shìto monitor
jiān kòngto monitor
jiān jìnto imprison
jiān shì qìsecurity camera
jiān tīngto monitor
jiān hù quáncustody (of a child)
jiān hùto act as a guardian
jiān hù rénguardian
zǒng jiānhead
jiān guǎnto oversee
jiān cháto supervise
jiān láoprison
tàn jiānto visit a prisoner (usu. a relative or friend)
jiān zhìto supervise the manufacture of
84
Total compounds
50
As first character
15
As last character
35
As middle character

appears in 84 compound words: 50 as the first character, 15 as the last, and 35 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.

shì
0.777404,310 co-occurrences
tài
0.715395,568 co-occurrences
kōng
0.707378,750 co-occurrences
0.69261,040 co-occurrences
0.59093,117 co-occurrences
chá
0.53469,012 co-occurrences
mài
0.51521 co-occurrences
jīn
0.49430,630 co-occurrences
0.48826,598 co-occurrences
zǒng
0.47960,966 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

hùxiāng jiāndūHSK 6+

mutual supervision; to supervise each other

phrase
jiānshǒuzìdàoHSK 7+

to steal money or property one guards; to embezzle

phrase
Sānbǎo tàijiànHSK 6+

Zheng He (1371–1433 or 1435), a Ming-dynasty eunuch voyager

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le jiān zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "监" in the dictionary.

�j�t�e�b�j���[�xFeb 2026

江川氏 巨人督候补に浮上?

jiāng chuān shì jù rén jiān dū hòu bǔ fú shàng ?

Mr. Egawa emerged as a candidate for Giants supervision?

English News - RthkFeb 2026

会财局:去年违规不算太多 强调管质素要有底线

huì cái jú : qù nián wéi guī bù suàn tài duō qiáng diào jiān guǎn zhì sù yāo yǒu de xiàn

Bureau of Finance and Finance: There were not too many violations last year, emphasizing that there should be a bottom line for regulatory quality

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

2男沦为“钱骡” 无力缴罚款遭判

2 nán 沦 wéi qián 骡 wú lì jiǎo fá kuǎn zāo pàn jiān

2 men became "money mules" and were sentenced to prison for not being able to pay the fine

EttodayFeb 2026

柯瑞制、配音发威!《山羊巅峰》逆袭狂卖32亿...

柯 ruì jiān zhì , pèi yīn fā wēi ! shān yáng diān fēng nì xí kuáng mài 3 2 yì . . .

Curry produces and dubbs to show power! "Goat Peak" counterattacked and sold 3.2 billion...

It之家Feb 2026

研究表明:管缺失的商业航天活动正成为大气污染新威胁

yán jiū biǎo míng : jiān guǎn quē shī de shāng yè háng tiān huó dòng zhèng chéng wéi dà qì wū rǎn xīn wēi xié

Research shows that commercial space activities without regulation are becoming a new threat to air pollution

Tatoeba

你在狱里呆了多久?

Nǐ zài jiānyù lǐ dāi le duōjiǔ?

How long were you in jail?

Tatoeba

狱生活比做畜牲还不如。

Jiānyù shēnghuó bǐ zuò chùshēng háibùrú.

Life in prison is worse than the life of an animal.

Tatoeba

抢劫银行的后果就是在狱里蹲十年。

Qiǎngjié yínháng de hòuguǒ jiùshì zài jiānyù lǐ dūn shí nián.

Bank robbery will cost you ten years in prison.

Tatoeba

暴动开始时只有一位狱长值班。

Bàodòng kāishǐ shí zhǐ yǒu yī wèi jiānyù cháng zhíbān.

There was only one warden on duty when the riot started.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 监 (jiān) mean in Chinese?
监 (jiān) primarily means "to supervise." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #838 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 监 have?
监 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 监?
The radical associated with 监 is 皿 (dish). This radical appears in many characters related to dish.
What are the components of 监?
监 is composed of: 皿 (structural). Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 监?
Common words with 监 include: 监狱 (jiān yù, "prison"); 监视 (jiān shì, "to monitor"); 监控 (jiān kòng, "to monitor"); 监禁 (jiān jìn, "to imprison"); 监督 (jiān dū, "to control"). There are over 84 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 监 (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 监 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 监 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.