嚼 (jiáo): to chew, also pr., used in 倒嚼

嚼 (jiáo) is a Chinese character meaning “to chew.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 口 (semantic) and 爵 (phonetic). It ranks #2588 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 嚼 mouth. Its radical form 口 (mouth) appears in many related characters such as 口 (kǒu, mouth), 叫 (jiào, to call, to be called), 右 (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 口 mouth21 strokesFrequency #2588口 semantic爵 phonetic

Definitions

  1. to chew
  2. also pr.
  3. used in 倒嚼

Etymology & Origin

嚼

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口爵 (layout: left-right)

Components:口semantic爵phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
咀嚼jǔ juéto chew
嚼舌jiáo shéto gossip
味同嚼蜡wèi tóng jiáo làlit. tastes as if one is chewing wax (idiom)
咬嚼yǎo jiáoto chew
吃别人嚼过的馍不香chī bié rén jiáo guò de mó bù xiānglit. bread previously chewed by someone has no flavor (idiom)
口嚼酒kǒu jiáo jiǔalcoholic drink made by fermenting chewed rice
咬文嚼字yǎo wén jiáo zìto bite words and chew characters (idiom)
贪多嚼不烂tān duō jiáo bù lànto bite off more than one can chew (idiom)
嚼子jiáo zibit
嚼劲儿jiáo jìn rchewiness
嚼头jiáo touchewiness
嚼舌头jiáo shé tóuto gossip
细嚼慢咽xì jiáo màn yànto eat slowly (idiom)
倒嚼dǎo jiào(of cows) to ruminate
嚼舌根jiáo shé gēnto gossip
18
Total compounds
50
As first character
17
As last character
33
As middle character

嚼 appears in 18 compound words: 50 as the first character, 17 as the last, and 33 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 嚼 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

咀jǔ
0.7765,352 co-occurrences
咬yǎo
0.505408 co-occurrences
劲jìn
0.454144 co-occurrences
咽yān
0.439102 co-occurrences
吞tūn
0.421246 co-occurrences
肌jī
0.412210 co-occurrences
糖táng
0.410342 co-occurrences
口kǒu
0.4062,676 co-occurrences
舌shé
0.406174 co-occurrences
耐nài
0.405186 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

味同嚼蜡wèitóngjiáolàHSK 7+

tastes as if one is chewing wax; insipid; tasteless

phrase
细嚼慢咽xìjiáomànyànHSK 7+

to chew carefully and swallow slowly

phrase

Showing 2 of 3 idioms containing 嚼.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请嚼下这杯茶，解解渴再继续工作。

qǐng jiáo xià zhè bēi chá , xiè xiè kě zài jì xù gōng zuò .

Please take a sip of this tea to quench your thirst before continuing your work.

Tatoeba

别狼吞虎咽的。你最好细嚼慢咽地吃。

Bié lángtūnhǔyàn de. nǐ zuì hǎo xìjiáomànyàn de chī.

Stop inhaling your food. You should eat a little slower.

Tatoeba

她在嚼口香糖，是吗？

Tā zài jiáo kǒuxiāngtáng, shì ma?

She's chewing gum, isn't she?

Tatoeba

食物在吞咽前要经过咀嚼。

Shíwù zài tūnyàn qián yào jīngguò jǔjué.

Food should be chewed before being swallowed.

Tatoeba

我不太能嚼东西。

Wǒ bù tài néng jiáo dōngxi.

I have difficulty chewing.

Character Family

口 Radical Family — Characters sharing the mouth radical

啊a哎āi哀āi唉āi叭bā吧ba哺bǔ嘈cáo唱chàng嘲cháo

Related Characters

口kǒu叫jiào右yòu号hào吃chī同tóng名míng后hòu吗ma吧ba

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiáo

交jiāo郊jiāo胶jiāo蕉jiāo饺jiǎo脚jiǎo叫jiào较jiào教jiào校jiào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 嚼 (jiáo) mean in Chinese?
嚼 (jiáo) primarily means "to chew." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2588 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 嚼 have?
嚼 is written with 21 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 嚼?
The radical associated with 嚼 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 嚼?
嚼 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 爵 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口爵 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 嚼?
Common words with 嚼 include: 咀嚼 (jǔ jué, "to chew"); 嚼舌 (jiáo shé, "to gossip"); 味同嚼蜡 (wèi tóng jiáo là, "lit. tastes as if one is chewing wax (idiom)"); 咬嚼 (yǎo jiáo, "to chew"); 吃别人嚼过的馍不香 (chī bié rén jiáo guò de mó bù xiāng, "lit. bread previously chewed by someone has no flavor (idiom)"). There are over 18 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 嚼 (jiáo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiáo: 交 (to hand over), 郊 (suburbs), 胶 (to glue), 蕉 (banana), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 嚼 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 嚼 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 嚼 with real-time feedback

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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.