(jiē): to take the lid off, to expose, to unmask

(jiē) is a Chinese character meaning “to take the lid off.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1654 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, hand. Its radical form (hand) appears in many related characters such as (shǒu, hand), (, hit, make), (zhǎo, to look for).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to take the lid off
  2. to expose
  3. to unmask

Etymology & Origin

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌曷 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jiē xiǎoto announce publicly
jiē lùto expose
jiē fāto expose
jiē kāito uncover
穿jiē chuānto expose
jiē shìto reveal
àn jiēa mortgage (loanword via Cantonese)
jiē mùopening
jiē mìto reveal a secret
jiē mù shìopening ceremony
zhāo rán ruò jiēabundantly clear
jiē dǐto reveal the inside story
jiē pòto uncover
jiē duǎnto expose sb's faults or shortcomings
bù dào huǒ hòu bù jiē guōdon't act until the time is ripe (idiom)
34
Total compounds
79
As first character
9
As last character
12
As middle character

appears in 34 compound words: 79 as the first character, 9 as the last, and 12 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.

0.65451,270 co-occurrences
0.60534,645 co-occurrences
xiǎo
0.4853,944 co-occurrences
shì
0.48330,462 co-occurrences
竿gān
0.4791,218 co-occurrences
xún
0.47210 co-occurrences
jiàn
0.47015 co-occurrences
miǎo
0.46611 co-occurrences
穿chuān
0.4648,478 co-occurrences
yáng
0.4368,712 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

jiēbùkāiguōHSK 7+

to run out of food

phrase
xiān tiān jiē dìHSK 7+

earth-shattering

phrase
zhāoránruòjiēHSK 7+

to be all too obvious; to be as clear as the sun at noonday

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

记者露了这起腐败案件的真相。

Jìzhě jiēlù le zhè qǐ fǔbài ànjiàn de zhēnxiàng.

The reporter exposed the truth of this corruption case.

EttodayFeb 2026

...港老街「年破2200萬人次」稱霸全台!網3大魅力:每年必去

. . . gǎng lǎo jiē nián pò 萬 rén cì 稱 bà quán tái ! 網 jiē dà mèi lì měi nián bì qù

Hong Kong Old Street "Surpasses 22 Million Annual Visitors," Dominating Taiwan! Netizens Reveal 3 Major Charms: A Must-Visit Every Year

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

...灣餐飲業覺醒了?一堆店除夕休到初五 老闆關鍵:根本做白工

. . . 灣 cān 飲 業 覺 xǐng le ? yī duī diàn chú xī xiū dào chū wǔ lǎo 闆 jiē 關 鍵 gēn běn zuò bái gōng

Has the restaurant industry in Taiwan woken up? A bunch of shops closed from New Year's Eve to the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. The owner reveals the key reason: it's basically working for nothing.

TvbsFeb 2026

邱偲琹秘2026妝容關鍵字 妝前急救「5分鐘小...

邱 偲 琹 jiē mì 妝 róng 關 鍵 zì 妝 qián jí jiù fēn 鐘 xiǎo . . .

Qiu Siyin Reveals Key Makeup Trends for 2026 5-Minute Pre-Makeup Rescue Routine...

三立新聞網Feb 2026

232條款「不受」影響 綠台美關稅3關鍵

條 kuǎn bù shòu yǐng 響 綠 jiē tái měi 關 稅 關 鍵

Section 232 "Not Affected" Green Camp Reveals Three Key Points on Taiwan-U.S. Tariffs

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

小江蕙81歲母親初二離世!陳思安忍3天痛噩耗:爸媽天上團聚了

xiǎo jiāng 蕙 歲 mǔ 親 chū èr 離 shì ! 陳 sī ān rěn tiān tòng jiē 噩 hào bà 媽 tiān shàng 團 jù le

Jasmine's 81 year old mother passed away on the second day of the month! The first time I've ever seen my mother die, I've never seen her again!

Tatoeba

谁能开海洋的奥秘?

Shéi néng jiēkāi hǎiyáng de àomì?

Who is able to reveal the mysteries of the sea?

Tatoeba

示了谣言的真相。

Tā jiēshì le yáoyán de zhēnxiàng.

It proved the truth of the rumor.

Tatoeba

今天我们来开英文虚拟式的神秘面纱。

Jīntiān wǒmen lái jiēkāi Yīngwén xūnǐ shì de shénmì miànshā.

Today, we are going to unravel the mystery of the English subjunctive.

Tatoeba

政治家以露政府官员的腐败来推动改革。

Zhèngzhìjiā yǐ jiēlù zhèngfǔguānyuán de fǔbài lái tuīdòng gǎigé.

The politician pushed for reform by denouncing the corruption of the government officials.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiē

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 揭 (jiē) mean in Chinese?
揭 (jiē) primarily means "to take the lid off." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1654 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 揭 and 渴?
揭 (jiē) and 渴 (kě) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 氵 (same 曷 component).
How many strokes does 揭 have?
揭 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 揭?
The radical associated with 揭 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 揭?
揭 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 曷 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌曷 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 揭?
Common words with 揭 include: 揭晓 (jiē xiǎo, "to announce publicly"); 揭露 (jiē lù, "to expose"); 揭发 (jiē fā, "to expose"); 揭开 (jiē kāi, "to uncover"); 揭穿 (jiē chuān, "to expose"). There are over 34 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 揭 (jiē)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiē: 阶 (rank or step), 接 (to receive, to connect), 街 (street), 节 (festival, section), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 揭 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 揭 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.