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

(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 (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2542 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, thread. Its radical form (silk) appears in many related characters such as (, to connect), (lěi, to accumulate), (shào, to continue).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

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

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticthread

Decomposition: ⿰纟交 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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
jiǎo sǐto hang (i.e. execute by hanging)
jiǎo xíngto execute by hanging
jiǎo jìn nǎo zhīto rack one's brains
jiǎo páncapstan
jiǎo xíng jiàgibbet
xīn jiǎo tòngangina
jiǎo jiàgallows
jiǎo shāto kill by strangling, hanging or garrotting
jiǎo tòngsharp pain
jiǎo suǒa noose for hanging criminals
jiǎo ròu jīmeat grinder
线shuāng jiǎo xiàntwisted pair (cabling)
jiǎo chēwinch
xīn rú dāo jiǎoto feel a pain like a knife being twisted in one's heart (idiom)
fù bù jiǎo tòngabdominal cramping
23
Total compounds
74
As first character
9
As last character
17
As middle character

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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

luǒ
0.5651,140 co-occurrences
xíng
0.5584,038 co-occurrences
zhī
0.464294 co-occurrences
tòng
0.461774 co-occurrences
pán
0.455600 co-occurrences
shéng
0.434150 co-occurrences
0.4302,322 co-occurrences
chǔ
0.4161,542 co-occurrences
0.413414 co-occurrences
zhǎn
0.410138 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

jiǎojìnnǎozhīHSK 7+

to rack one's brain

phrase
xīn rú dāo jiǎoHSK 7+

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

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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、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,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), 校 (to check), 郊 (suburbs), 狡 (crafty), and 3 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 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.