(jié): to cut off (a length), to stop, to intercept

(jié) is a Chinese character meaning “to cut off (a length).” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical (halberd). It ranks #1542 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, a bird 隹 cut off from its nest 十 by a weapon 戈. Its radical form (halberd) appears in many related characters such as (, I), (chéng, to succeed), (huò, maybe).

Native pronunciation
HSK 6Radical: halberd14 strokesFrequency #1542

Definitions

  1. to cut off (a length)
  2. to stop
  3. to intercept

Etymology & Origin

ideographicA bird 隹 cut off from its nest 十 by a weapon 戈

Decomposition: ⿻⿱十隹戈 (layout: overlay)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

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
verbjié zhǐto end6
verbjié zhìup to (a time)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
lán jiéto intercept
jié rán bù tóngentirely different
jié huòto intercept
zhí jié liǎo dàngdirect and plainspoken (idiom)
jié zhīamputation (medicine)
jié qǔto cut off a section of sth
jié duànto break or cut in two
zǔ jiéto stop
bàn jiéhalf (of sth)
jié ránsharply
jié tānparaplegia
héng jié miàncross-section
jié jīto intercept (military)
zhǎn dīng jié tiělit. to chop the nail and slice the iron (idiom)
dǔ jiéto intercept
41
Total compounds
63
As first character
20
As last character
17
As middle character

appears in 41 compound words: 63 as the first character, 20 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.

lán
0.68319,044 co-occurrences
zhì
0.644358,745 co-occurrences
zhǐ
0.56472,880 co-occurrences
chāo
0.53910,188 co-occurrences
zhī
0.4896,366 co-occurrences
0.4573,408 co-occurrences
duàn
0.3996,618 co-occurrences
gùn
0.3981,710 co-occurrences
héng
0.3853,696 co-occurrences
jìng
0.38010 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

jiéránbùtóngHSK 6+

to be completely different; to be poles apart

phrase
jié cháng bǔ duǎnHSK 6+

take from the long to supplement the short (idiom); to offset each other's deficiencies; to complement each other

phrase
liáng le bàn jiéHSK 6+

felt a chill (in one's heart); (one's heart) sank

phrase
zhǎndīngjiétiěHSK 7+

resolute and decisive; categorical

phrase
zhíjiéliǎodàngHSK 6+

direct and plainspoken; straightforward

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请把这篇文章取一部分作为引用。

Qǐng bǎ zhè piān wénzhāng jiéqǔ yī bùfen zuòwéi yǐnyòng.

Please excerpt a portion of this article as a citation.

InvestingFeb 2026

以色列股市上涨;至收盘特拉维夫TA35指数上涨0.27%

yǐ sè liè gǔ shì shàng zhǎng jié zhì shōu pán tè lā wéi fū zhǐ shǔ shàng zhǎng .

Israeli stocks rose; the Tel Aviv TA35 index gained 0.27% at the close.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

家姐好心幫手「攔成績表」反害慘弟弟 網民一面倒:故意的吧...

jiā jiě hǎo xīn 幫 shǒu 攔 jié chéng 績 biǎo fǎn hài 慘 dì dì 網 mín yī miàn dǎo gù yì de ba . . .

Big Sister's Kind Gesture of "Intercepting the Report Card" Backfires on Little Brother Netizens Unanimously Say: This Was Definitely on Purpose...

Yahoo FinanceFeb 2026

日本擬強化攔無人機防空網

rì běn 擬 強 huà 攔 jié 無 rén 機 fáng kōng 網

Japan plans to strengthen its air defense network to intercept drones.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

回港潮|初六至晚上9時102萬人次出入境 43萬港人...

huí gǎng cháo chū liù jié zhì wǎn shàng 時 萬 rén cì chū rù jìng 萬 gǎng rén . . .

Returning to Hong Kong | 1.02 million people entered and left Hong Kong on the 6th day of the Lunar New Year up to 9:00 p.m. 430,000 Hong Kong people...

Hk01.comFeb 2026

回港潮|初六至下午4時62.2萬人次出入境 20萬人...

huí gǎng cháo chū liù jié zhì xià wǔ 時 . 萬 rén cì chū rù jìng 萬 rén . . .

Returning to Hong Kong|The 6th day of the Lunar New Year as of 4:00 pm 622,000 people crossed the border and 200,000...

Tatoeba

能够直了当地表达自己想法的人很直爽。

Nénggòu zhíjié-liǎodàng de biǎodá zìjǐ xiǎngfǎ de rén hěn zhíshuǎng.

People who can express their thoughts in a clear-cut way are very straightforward.

Tatoeba

日语和汉语的汉字发音然不同,对吗?

Rìyǔ hé Hànyǔ de hànzì fāyīn jiéránbùtóng, duì ma?

The Japanese and Chinese pronunciation for kanji is very different, isn't it?

Tatoeba

玛丽直了当地拒绝了汤姆的请求。

Mǎlì zhíjiéliǎodàng de jùjué le Tāngmǔ de qǐngqiú.

Mary bluntly rejected Tom's request.

Tatoeba

他举高了手来的士。

Tā jǔ gāo le shǒu lái jié dīshì.

He raised his hand in order that the taxi might stop.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jié

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 截 (jié) mean in Chinese?
截 (jié) primarily means "to cut off (a length)." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1542 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 截 have?
截 is written with 14 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 截?
The radical associated with 截 is 戈 (halberd). This radical appears in many characters related to halberd.
What are common words containing 截?
Common words with 截 include: 拦截 (lán jié, "to intercept"); 截然不同 (jié rán bù tóng, "entirely different"); 截获 (jié huò, "to intercept"); 截止 (jié zhǐ, "to end"); 直截了当 (zhí jié liǎo dàng, "direct and plainspoken (idiom)"). There are over 41 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 截 (jié)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jié: 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 截 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 截 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.