绞 (jiǎo): to twist (strands into a thread), to entangle, to wring

绞 (jiǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “to twist (strands into a thread).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 纟 (semantic) and 交 (phonetic). It ranks #2542 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 绞 thread. Its radical form 纟 (silk) appears in many related characters such as 系 (xì, to connect), 累 (lèi, tired), 绍 (shào, to continue).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to twist (strands into a thread)
  2. to entangle
  3. to wring

Etymology & Origin

绞

pictophoneticthread

Decomposition: ⿰纟交 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
绞死verbjiǎo sǐto hang (i.e. execute by hanging)
绞刑verbjiǎo xíngto execute by hanging
绞尽脑汁phrasejiǎo jìn nǎo zhīto rack one's brains
绞盘nounjiǎo páncapstan
绞刑架nounjiǎo xíng jiàgibbet
心绞痛nounxīn jiǎo tòngangina
绞架nounjiǎo jiàgallows
绞杀verbjiǎo shāto kill by strangling, hanging or garrotting
绞痛nounjiǎo tòngsharp pain
绞索verbjiǎo suǒa noose for hanging criminals
绞肉机nounjiǎo ròu jīmeat grinder
双绞线shuāng jiǎo xiàntwisted pair (cabling)
绞车nounjiǎo chēwinch
心如刀绞xīn rú dāo jiǎoto feel a pain like a knife being twisted in one's heart (idiom)
腹部绞痛fù bù jiǎo tòngabdominal cramping
23
Total compounds
74
As first character
9
As last character
17
As middle character

绞 appears in 23 compound words: 74 as the first character, 9 as the last, and 17 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 绞 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

裸luǒ
0.557380 co-occurrences
刑xíng
0.5501,346 co-occurrences
汁zhī
0.45798 co-occurrences
痛tòng
0.454258 co-occurrences
盘pán
0.448200 co-occurrences
绳shéng
0.42850 co-occurrences
死sǐ
0.424774 co-occurrences
处chǔ
0.410514 co-occurrences
伏fú
0.407138 co-occurrences
斩zhǎn
0.40446 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

绞尽脑汁jiǎojìnnǎozhīHSK 7+

to rack one's brain

phrase
心如刀绞xīn rú dāo jiǎoHSK 7+

to feel a pain like a knife being twisted in one's heart (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

绞字的写法很特别,让我印象深刻。

jiǎo zì de xiě fǎ hěn tè bié , ràng wǒ yìn xiàng shēn kè .

The way the character "绞" is written is quite unique and left a deep impression on me.

IT之家Jul 2026

外包人员发送的图片包括药片、刀具、绞索等。

wài bāo rén yuán fā sòng de tú piàn bāo kuò yào piàn , dāo jù , jiǎo suǒ děng .

The images sent by the contractor included pills, knives, nooses, and other items.

中国新闻网·生活Jun 2026

水温过低则会导致血管收缩、血压上升,造成心肌供血不足,进而可能引发心绞痛等问题。

shuǐ wēn guò dī zé huì dǎo zhì xiě guǎn shōu suō , xiě yā shàng shēng , zào chéng xīn jī gōng xiě bù zú , jìn ér kě néng yǐn fā xīn jiǎo tòng děng wèn tí .

If the water temperature is too low, it can cause blood vessels to constrict and blood pressure to rise, leading to insufficient blood supply to the heart muscle, which in turn may trigger problems such as angina.

中国新闻网·生活May 2026

马鞍山市消防救援局秀山特勤站指导员 宋雄弢: 首先这种双绞线里面的导丝是比较细的。

mǎ 鞍 shān shì xiāo fáng jiù yuán jú xiù shān tè qín zhàn zhǐ dǎo yuán sòng xióng 弢 : shǒu xiān zhè zhǒng shuāng jiǎo xiàn lǐ miàn de dǎo sī shì bǐ jiào xì de .

Song Xiongtao, Instructor at the Xiushan Special Operations Station of the Ma'anshan Municipal Fire and Rescue Bureau: First of all, the conductors inside this twisted-pair cable are relatively thin.

爱范儿Apr 2026

把皮克斯跳跳灯搬进现实 凌晨三点的书房,绞尽脑汁也没想出好方案。

bǎ pí kè sī tiào tiào dēng bān jìn xiàn shí líng chén sān diǎn de shū fáng , jiǎo jǐn nǎo zhī yě méi xiǎng chū hǎo fāng àn .

Bringing the Pixar Lamp to Life: It was 3 a.m. in my study, and no matter how hard I racked my brain, I just couldn’t come up with a good solution.

Tatoeba

他因谋杀罪被绞死。

Tā yīn móushāzuì bèi jiǎosǐ.

He was hanged for murder.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 纟 (thread) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 绞 (jiǎo) mean in Chinese?
绞 (jiǎo) primarily means "to twist (strands into a thread)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2542 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 绞 and 效?
绞 (jiǎo) and 效 (xiào) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 纟 vs 攵 (same 交 component).
How many strokes does 绞 have?
绞 is written with 9 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 绞?
The radical associated with 绞 is 纟 (silk). This radical appears in many characters related to silk.
What are the components of 绞?
绞 is composed of: 纟 (semantic), 交 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰纟交 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 绞?
Common words with 绞 include: 绞死 (jiǎo sǐ, "to hang (i.e. execute by hanging)"); 绞刑 (jiǎo xíng, "to execute by hanging"); 绞尽脑汁 (jiǎo jìn nǎo zhī, "to rack one's brains"); 绞盘 (jiǎo pán, "capstan"); 绞刑架 (jiǎo xíng jià, "gibbet"). There are over 23 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 绞 (jiǎo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiǎo: 较 (compare, relatively), 郊 (suburbs), 狡 (crafty), 饺 (dumpling), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 绞 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 绞 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 绞 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.