(jiāo): to glue, glue, gum

(jiāo) is a Chinese character meaning “to glue.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #2122 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, tendons that connect 交 muscles ⺼; 交 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form (meat) appears in many related characters such as (ròu, meat), (néng, can), (bèi, the back of a body or object).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to glue
  2. glue
  3. gum

Etymology & Origin

ideographicTendons that connect 交 muscles ⺼; 交 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰⺼交 (layout: left-right)

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
nounjiāo dàiadhesive tape6
nounjiāo shuǐglue6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xiàng jiāorubber
jiāo piàn(photographic) film
sù jiāosynthetic resin
jiāo juǎnroll of film
jiāo náng(pharm.) capsule
jiāo bùadhesive plaster
guī jiāosilica gel
jiāo zhìcolloid
rǔ jiāolatex
jiāo xiérubber overshoes
jiāo hé bǎnplywood
tòu míng jiāoScotch tape
xiàng jiāo shùrubber tree
jiāo níclay
jiāo tǐcolloid
100
Total compounds
35
As first character
52
As last character
13
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 35 as the first character, 52 as the last, and 13 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.

xiàng
0.75818,462 co-occurrences
náng
0.5945,651 co-occurrences
níng
0.5263,804 co-occurrences
diàn
0.499834 co-occurrences
0.4843,327 co-occurrences
róng
0.4772,580 co-occurrences
nián
0.458870 co-occurrences
piàn
0.44012,600 co-occurrences
0.4351,566 co-occurrences
dōng
0.43111,418 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

ālābó jiāoHSK 7+

gum arabic

noun
hé chéng xiàng jiāoHSK 6+

synthetic rubber

phrase
jiāo bǎn yìn shuāHSK 6+

offset printing

phrase
lǜ dīng xiàng jiāoHSK 7+

neoprene

phrase
yì wù xiàng jiāoHSK 6+

isoprene rubber

phrase

Showing 5 of 6 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

写好字需要掌握正确的笔画顺序。

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

To write the character "胶" correctly, you need to master the proper stroke order.

LtnMar 2026

原蛋白能抗老? 研究:只能做到这一步

jiāo yuán dàn bái néng kàng lǎo ? yán jiū : zhī néng zuò dào zhè yī bù

Can collagen fight aging? Research: This is the only way to do it

LtnFeb 2026

...!北台新案市况创4年新低 “这两区”销售着卖压大

. . . ! běi tái xīn àn shì kuàng chuàng 4 nián xīn dī zhè liǎng qū xiāo shòu jiāo zhe mài yā dà

...! The market situation of new cases in North Taiwan hit a 4-year low, and the sales of "these two districts" were stalemate and the selling pressure was high

Investing 香港Feb 2026

Palvella报告淋巴管畸形凝第三期试验结果呈阳性

P a l v e l l a bào gào lín bā guǎn jī xíng níng jiāo dì sān qī shì yàn jié guǒ chéng yáng xìng

Palvela reported positive results from the phase III trial of lymphangiomalformations gel

Hypebeast. TwFeb 2026

...n Record Crate:颠覆传统黑收纳方式

. . . n R e c o r d C r a t e : diān fù chuán tǒng hēi jiāo shōu nà fāng shì

... n Record Crate: Subverting the traditional vinyl storage method

Hypebeast. TwFeb 2026

...NG design 推出马年限定联名球衣囊系列

. . . N G d e s i g n tuī chū mǎ nián xiàn dìng lián míng qiú yī jiāo náng xì liè

... NG design has launched a limited edition co-branded jersey capsule series for the Year of the Horse

Tatoeba

他在手上贴了一块布。

Tā zài shǒu shàng tiē le yīkuài jiāobù.

He put a Band-Aid on his hand.

Tatoeba

一些家具是用水黏在一起。

Yīxiē jiājù shì yòng jiāoshuǐ nián zàiyīqǐ.

Some furniture is put together with glue.

Tatoeba

这把椅子是用塑制成的。

Zhè bǎ yǐzi shì yòng sùjiāo zhìchéng de.

This chair is made of plastic.

Tatoeba

请给我一卷彩色片。

Qǐng gěi wǒ yī juǎn cǎisè jiāopiàn.

A roll of colour film, please.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiāo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 胶 (jiāo) mean in Chinese?
胶 (jiāo) primarily means "to glue." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2122 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 胶 have?
胶 is written with 12 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 胶?
The radical associated with 胶 is 肉 (meat). This radical appears in many characters related to meat.
What are the components of 胶?
胶 is composed of: ⺼ (structural), 交 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰⺼交 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 胶?
Common words with 胶 include: 胶带 (jiāo dài, "adhesive tape"); 橡胶 (xiàng jiāo, "rubber"); 胶片 (jiāo piàn, "(photographic) film"); 胶水 (jiāo shuǐ, "glue"); 塑胶 (sù jiāo, "synthetic resin"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 胶 (jiāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiāo: 交 (to hand over), 郊 (suburbs), 骄 (proud), 蕉 (banana), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 胶 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 胶 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.