(jiè): to guard against, to exhort, to admonish or warn

(jiè) is a Chinese character meaning “to guard against.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1556 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, two hands 廾 brandishing a spear 戈. Its radical form (halberd) appears in many related characters such as (, I), (chéng, to succeed), (huò, maybe).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to guard against
  2. to exhort
  3. to admonish or warn

Etymology & Origin

ideographicTwo hands 廾 brandishing a spear 戈

Decomposition: ⿹戈廾 (layout: surround-from-upper-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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
nounjiè zhi(finger) ring6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jǐng jièto warn
jiè dúto kick a drug habit
jiè jiǔto give up drinking
jiè bèito take precautions
jiè yānto give up smoking
jiè dú suǒdrug rehabilitation center
线jǐng jiè xiànpolice cordon
jiè lǜmonastic discipline
zuàn jièdiamond ring
jiè yánto impose martial law
jiè xīnvigilance
chéng jièto discipline
jiè chúto quit
jiè yán lìngmartial law
zhāi jièto observe a religious fast
57
Total compounds
51
As first character
46
As last character
4
As middle character

appears in 57 compound words: 51 as the first character, 46 as the last, and 4 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.

jǐng
0.52231,058 co-occurrences
chéng
0.5212,562 co-occurrences
shào
0.5143,000 co-occurrences
yán
0.4979,582 co-occurrences
0.49716,206 co-occurrences
yǐn
0.479666 co-occurrences
zhǐ
0.45526,059 co-occurrences
0.4427,260 co-occurrences
0.4371,716 co-occurrences
0.4249,306 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

jièbèisēnyánHSK 6+

to be extremely vigilant

phrase
jiè jiāo jiè zàoHSK 7+

to guard against pride and impatience (idiom); to remain modest and keep cool

phrase
jiè shē chóng jiǎnHSK 7+

(idiom) to refrain from extravagance and cherish frugality

phrase
yǐnyǐwéijièHSK 6+

to take as a warning; to draw lessons from

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这个字的意思与它的部首有关。

zhè gě jiè zì de yì sī yú tā de bù shǒu yǒu guān .

The meaning of the character "戒" is related to its radical.

99 健康网Feb 2026

孕期喝了酒对宝宝有没有影响?酒后胎儿还能恢复正常吗

yùn qī hē le jiǔ duì bǎo bǎo yǒu méi yǒu yǐng xiǎng ? jiè jiǔ hòu tāi ér hái néng huī fù zhèng cháng ma

Does drinking alcohol during pregnancy affect the baby? Can the fetus return to normal after quitting drinking?

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...不退选?Cheap掀她底狠酸:这女士还挺

. . . bù tuì xuǎn ? C h e a p xiān tā de hěn suān : zhè nǚ shì hái tǐng jiè yán

... Don't withdraw from the election? Cheap lifted her bottom and soured: This lady is quite under martial law

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

黄齐元/国际新趋势 台需慎恐惧

huáng qí yuán guó jì xīn qū shì tái xū jiè shèn kǒng jù

Huang Qiyuan/New International Trends Taiwan needs to be cautious and fearful

English News - RthkFeb 2026

擅闯特朗普住所海湖庄园警线男子被击毙 白宫指特勤局果断行动

shàn chuǎng tè lǎng pǔ zhù suǒ hǎi hú zhuāng yuán jǐng jiè xiàn nán zǐ bèi jī bì bái gōng zhǐ tè qín jú guǒ duàn háng dòng

A man was killed after trespassing on the cordon of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence, the White House accused the Secret Service of decisive action

Orientaldaily MyFeb 2026

财政部:网传500令吉斋月援助属假消息

cái zhèng bù : wǎng chuán 5 0 0 lìng jí 斋 jiè yuè yuán zhù shǔ jiǎ xiāo xī

Ministry of Finance: The RM500 Ramadan aid spread online is fake news

Tatoeba

我觉得这钻石指太奢侈了。

Wǒ juéde zhè zuànshí jièzhi tài shēchǐ le.

This diamond ring is too extravagant for me.

Tatoeba

钻石被镶在一个金指上。

Zuànshí bèi xiāng zài yī gè jīn jièzhi shàng.

The diamond was set in a gold ring.

Tatoeba

萨米选择了烟大麻。

Sà mǐ xuǎnzé le jièyān dàmá.

Sami decided to quit smoking weed.

Tatoeba

萨米给莱拉买了一枚美丽的钻

Sà mǐ gěi lái lā mǎi le yī méi měilì de zuànjiè.

Sami bought Layla a beautiful diamond ring.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiè

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 戒 (jiè) mean in Chinese?
戒 (jiè) primarily means "to guard against." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1556 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 戒 have?
戒 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 戒?
The radical associated with 戒 is 戈 (halberd). This radical appears in many characters related to halberd.
What are the components of 戒?
戒 is composed of: 戈 (structural), 廾 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿹戈廾 with a surround-from-upper-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 戒?
Common words with 戒 include: 戒指 (jiè zhi, "(finger) ring"); 警戒 (jǐng jiè, "to warn"); 戒毒 (jiè dú, "to kick a drug habit"); 戒酒 (jiè jiǔ, "to give up drinking"); 戒备 (jiè bèi, "to take precautions"). There are over 57 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 戒 (jiè)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiè: 阶 (rank or step), 接 (to receive, to connect), 街 (street), 节 (festival, section), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 戒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 戒 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.