跤 (jiāo): a tumble, a fall

跤 (jiāo) is a Chinese character meaning “a tumble.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 足 (semantic) and 交 (phonetic). It ranks #2958 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 跤 foot. Its radical form 足 (foot) appears in many related characters such as 跑 (pǎo, to run), 跟 (gēn, follow, heel), 路 (lù, road).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 足 foot13 strokesFrequency #2958足 semantic交 phonetic

Definitions

  1. a tumble
  2. a fall

Etymology & Origin

跤

pictophoneticfoot

Decomposition: ⿰足交 (layout: left-right)

Components:足semantic交phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
摔跤shuāi jiāoto trip and fall
跌跤diē jiāoto fall down
绊跤bàn jiāoto trip
3
Total compounds
0
As first character
100
As last character
0
As middle character

跤 appears in 3 compound words: 0 as the first character, 100 as the last, and 0 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 跤 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

摔shuāi
0.87623,562 co-occurrences
锦jǐn
0.446774 co-occurrences
手shǒu
0.4265,160 co-occurrences
运yùn
0.4002,418 co-occurrences
项xiàng
0.3751,062 co-occurrences
跌diē
0.359150 co-occurrences
式shì
0.3572,580 co-occurrences
奥ào
0.355780 co-occurrences
赛sài
0.3521,518 co-occurrences
标biāo
0.347774 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解跤字的来源，有助于理解中国文化。

le xiè jiāo zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ xiè zhōng guó wén huā .

Understanding the origin of the character "跤" helps to comprehend Chinese culture.

ZaobaoMar 2026

19岁摔跤国手被公开处决 伊朗前水球运动员表悲痛

1 9 suì shuāi jiāo guó shǒu bèi gōng kāi chǔ jué yī lǎng qián shuǐ qiú yùn dòng yuán biǎo bēi tòng

19-Year-Old National Wrestler Publicly Executed; Former Iranian Water Polo Player Expresses Grief

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Mar 2026

新哈梅内伊政权处决3抗议者 含19岁摔跤冠军

xīn hā méi nèi yī zhèng quán chǔ jué 3 kàng yì zhě hán 1 9 suì shuāi jiāo guàn jūn

The new Khamenei regime executes three protesters, including a 19-year-old wrestling champion

Tatoeba

我滑了一跤并从楼梯上摔下来。

Wǒ huá le yī jiāo bìng cóng lóutī shàng shuāi xiàlai.

I slipped and fell down the stairs.

Tatoeba

雨天路滑，小心摔跤。

Yǔtiān lù huá, xiǎoxīn shuāijiāo.

The roads are slippery on a rainy day. Be careful not to fall.

Character Family

足 Radical Family — Characters sharing the foot radical

蹦bèng踩cǎi蹭cèng踹chuài蹈dǎo蹬dēng蹲cún跟gēn跪guì践jiàn

Related Characters

跑pǎo跟gēn路lù足zú跳tiào距jù跃yuè跌diē跨kuà跪guì

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiāo

郊jiāo饺jiǎo较jiào校jiào交jiāo胶jiāo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 跤 (jiāo) mean in Chinese?
跤 (jiāo) primarily means "a tumble." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2958 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 跤 and 起?
跤 (jiāo) and 起 (qǐ) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 跤 (fall) vs 起 (rise).
How many strokes does 跤 have?
跤 is written with 13 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 跤?
The radical associated with 跤 is 足 (foot). This radical appears in many characters related to foot.
What are the components of 跤?
跤 is composed of: 足 (semantic), 交 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰足交 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 跤?
Common words with 跤 include: 摔跤 (shuāi jiāo, "to trip and fall"); 跌跤 (diē jiāo, "to fall down"); 绊跤 (bàn jiāo, "to trip"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 跤 (jiāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiāo: 郊 (suburbs), 饺 (dumpling), 较 (compare, relatively), 校 (to check), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 跤 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 跤 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 跤 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.