降 (jiàng): to drop, to fall, to come down

降 (jiàng) is a Chinese character meaning “to drop.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 阝 (semantic) and 夅 (phonetic). It ranks #744 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 降 hill. Its radical form 阝 (mound) appears in many related characters such as 那 (nà, (specifier) that), 都 (dōu, all), 院 (yuàn, courtyard).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to drop
  2. to fall
  3. to come down

Etymology & Origin

降

pictophonetichill

Decomposition: ⿰阝夅 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 降

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
降落verbjiàng luòto descend4
下降verbxià jiàngto decline4
降低verbjiàng dīto reduce4
降温verbjiàng wēnto become cooler4
降价verbjiàng jiàto cut the price4
降水verbjiàng shuǐrain and snow5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
投降verbtóu xiángto surrender
降临verbjiàng línto descend
降落伞nounjiàng luò sǎnparachute
从天而降phrasecóng tiān ér jiàng(idiom) to fall from the sky
降生verbjiàng shēngto be born
迫降verbpò jiàngto force a plane to land
升降机nounshēng jiàng jīaerial work platform (e.g. cherry picker or scissor lift)
降级verbjiàng jíto demote
升降verbshēng jiàngrising and falling
降职verbjiàng zhíto demote (to a lower rank)
降解verbjiàng jiě(chemistry) degradation
空降verbkōng jiàngto drop from the sky
降雨verbjiàng yǔprecipitation
降压verbjiàng yāto reduce the pressure (of a fluid)
降格verbjiàng géto downgrade
90
Total compounds
48
As first character
32
As last character
20
As middle character

降 appears in 90 compound words: 48 as the first character, 32 as the last, and 20 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 降 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

低dī
0.57369,432 co-occurrences
投tóu
0.56248,398 co-occurrences
雨yǔ
0.51328,169 co-occurrences
落luò
0.48723,078 co-occurrences
升shēng
0.48424,000 co-occurrences
下xià
0.47468,872 co-occurrences
伞sǎn
0.4711,482 co-occurrences
量liàng
0.46033,130 co-occurrences
幅fú
0.4405,392 co-occurrences
均jūn
0.42213,842 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

从天而降cóngtiān'érjiàngHSK 4+

to happen all of a sudden; to happen out of the blue; to come out of nowhere

phrase
防暑降温fáng shǔ jiàng wēnHSK 5+

to prevent heatstroke and reduce temperature

phrase
降龙伏虎xiáng lóng fú hǔHSK 7+

to vanquish dragons and tigers (idiom)

phrase
明升暗降míng shēng àn jiàngHSK 5+

(idiom) to kick sb upstairs

phrase
喜从天降xǐ cóng tiān jiàngHSK 4+

joy from heaven (idiom); overjoyed at unexpected good news; unlooked-for happy event

phrase
招降纳叛zhāo xiáng nà pànHSK 7+

to recruit surrendered enemy and deserters (idiom); to gather together a gang of villains

phrase
纡尊降贵yūzūnjiàngguìHSK 4+

to condescend; to descend to a less dignified level and act humbly

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好降字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

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

To write the character "降" correctly, one must master the proper stroke order.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

每天喝咖啡和茶 失智风险最高降三成

měi tiān hē kā fēi hé chá shī zhì fēng xiǎn zuì gāo jiàng sān chéng

Drinking coffee and tea every day reduces the risk of dementia by up to 30%

東方日報Feb 2026

被困晴空塔升降机长达5个半小时 约20人全部获救

bèi kùn qíng kōng tǎ shēng jiàng jī cháng dá 5 gè bàn xiǎo shí yuē 2 0 rén quán bù huò jiù

Trapped in the Skytree lift for five and a half hours, about 20 people were rescued

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

通膨上升、减重药热销 美食品业降价吸引顾客回流

tōng péng shàng shēng , jiǎn chóng yào rè xiāo měi shí pǐn yè jiàng jià xī yǐn gù kè huí liú

Inflation rises, weight loss drugs are hot, and the price reduction of the US food industry attracts customers to return

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

局地降温超20°C!降温继续南下,南方多地降雨...

jú dì jiàng wēn chāo 2 0 C ! jiàng wēn jì xù nán xià , nán fāng duō dì jiàng yǔ . . .

The local cooling exceeded 20°C! The cooling continued to move south, and it rained in many places in the south...

百度新闻Feb 2026

未必是坏事!南马降级成精英标 马拉松将回归体验本质

wèi bì shì huài shì ! nán mǎ jiàng jí chéng jīng yīng biāo mǎ lā sōng jiāng huí guī tǐ yàn běn zhì

It's not necessarily a bad thing! South Malaysia is relegated to an elite marathon and will return to the essence of experience

Tatoeba

时光流转,死亡突降。

Shíguāng liúzhuǎn, sǐwáng tū jiàng.

Time turns, death strikes.

Tatoeba

我们要向这个怪兽投降吗?

Wǒmen yào xiàng zhège guàishòu tóuxiáng ma?

Are we going to surrender to these monsters?

Tatoeba

萨米只有投降一途

Sà mǐ zhǐyǒu tóuxiáng yī tú

Sami had no choice but to surrender.

Tatoeba

由于产量过剩,卷心菜的价格下降了。

Yóuyú chǎnliàng guòshèng, juǎnxīncài de jiàgé xiàjiàng le.

The price of cabbage fell because of overproduction.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 阝 (hill) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiàng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 降 (jiàng) mean in Chinese?
降 (jiàng) primarily means "to drop." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #744 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 降 and 上?
降 (jiàng) and 上 (shàng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 降 (come) vs 上 (go).
How many strokes does 降 have?
降 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 降?
The radical associated with 降 is 阝 (mound). This radical appears in many characters related to mound.
What are the components of 降?
降 is composed of: 阝 (semantic), 夅 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰阝夅 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 降?
Common words with 降 include: 降落 (jiàng luò, "to descend"); 投降 (tóu xiáng, "to surrender"); 下降 (xià jiàng, "to decline"); 降临 (jiàng lín, "to descend"); 降低 (jiàng dī, "to reduce"). There are over 90 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 降 (jiàng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiàng: 将 (will), 讲 (to speak, to explain), 江 (river), 奖 (prize), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 降 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 降 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 降 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.