芥 (jiè): mustard

芥 (jiè) is a Chinese character meaning “mustard.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 介 (phonetic). It ranks #2768 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 芥 plant. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 蒸 (zhēng, to steam), 草 (cǎo, grass), 花 (huā, flower).

Spoken pronunciation
Radical: 艹 grass7 strokesFrequency #2768艹 semantic介 phonetic

Definitions

  1. mustard

Etymology & Origin

芥

pictophoneticplant

Decomposition: ⿱艹介 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:艹semantic介phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
芥末nounjiè momustard
芥菜nounjiè càileaf mustard (Brassica juncea)
芥蒂nounjiè dìan obstruction
芥子气jiè zǐ qìmustard gas
视如土芥shì rú tǔ jièto regard as useless
草芥人命cǎo jiè rén mìngsee 草菅人命
芥花油jiè huā yóurapeseed oil
水田芥shuǐ tián jièwatercress
芥兰noungài lánvariant of 芥藍|芥蓝
氮芥气dàn jiè qìnitrogen mustard
芥蓝noungài lánChinese broccoli
青芥辣qīng jiè làhorseradish
筷子芥kuài zi jièArabis, a genus of Brassica family including cress
拾芥shí jièto pick up cress
芥菜籽nounjiè cài zǐmustard seed
17
Total compounds
53
As first character
29
As last character
18
As middle character

芥 appears in 17 compound words: 53 as the first character, 29 as the last, and 18 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·生活Jun 2026

苦味能清泻心火、燥湿健脾，可适当多吃苦瓜、莲子心、芥蓝等，脾胃虚寒人群不可多食。

kǔ wèi néng qīng xiè xīn huǒ , zào shī jiàn pí , kě shì dāng duō chī kǔ guā , lián zǐ xīn , jiè lán děng , pí wèi xū hán rén qún bù kě duō shí .

Bitter flavors can clear heart fire and dry dampness to strengthen the spleen. You may eat a moderate amount of bitter melon, lotus seed hearts, and Chinese broccoli; however, people with spleen and stomach deficiency-cold should not consume them in large quantities.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 艹 (plant) component

英yīng落luò苦kǔ药yào莱lái苏sū范fàn藏zàng草cǎo艺yì

Related Characters

蒸zhēng草cǎo花huā茶chá菜cài药yào苦kǔ落luò蓝lán节jié

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiè

界jiè

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 芥 (jiè) mean in Chinese?
芥 (jiè) primarily means "mustard." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #2768 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 芥 and 价?
芥 (jiè) and 价 (jià) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 艹 vs 亻 (same 介 component).
How many strokes does 芥 have?
芥 is written with 7 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 芥?
The radical associated with 芥 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 芥?
芥 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 介 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹介 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 芥?
Common words with 芥 include: 芥末 (jiè mo, "mustard"); 芥菜 (jiè cài, "leaf mustard (Brassica juncea)"); 芥蒂 (jiè dì, "an obstruction"); 芥子气 (jiè zǐ qì, "mustard gas"); 视如土芥 (shì rú tǔ jiè, "to regard as useless"). There are over 17 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 芥 (jiè)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiè: 界 (world, boundary). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 芥 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 芥 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 芥 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.