(jié): clean

(jié) is a Chinese character meaning “clean.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1521 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, water. Its radical form (water) appears in many related characters such as (shuǐ, water), (hàn, Han ethnic group), (, steam).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. clean

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵吉 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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
adjectiveqīng jiéclean6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
chún jiépure
qīng jié gōngcleaner
zhěng jiéneatly
shèng jiépure and holy
qīng jié jìdetergent
zhēn jiéchastity
jiǎn jiéconcise
jié jìngclean
西jié xī kǎJessica (name)
jié pǐmysophobia
jié báispotlessly white
bǎo jiésanitation
guāng jiébright and clean
jiǎo jiéshining clean
jié shēn zì hàoclean-living and honest (idiom)
45
Total compounds
31
As first character
40
As last character
29
As middle character

appears in 45 compound words: 31 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 29 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.

chún
0.5805,328 co-occurrences
jìng
0.5492,902 co-occurrences
jiǎn
0.5378,524 co-occurrences
qīng
0.49615,127 co-occurrences
lián
0.4953,984 co-occurrences
yuān
0.476912 co-occurrences
zhēn
0.4741,236 co-occurrences
yíng
0.457462 co-occurrences
zhèng
0.4221,506 co-occurrences
yáng
0.4061,734 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

bīngqīngyùjiéHSK 6+

irreproachable; incorruptible

phrase
yù jié bīng qīngHSK 6+

clear as ice and clean as jade (idiom); spotless; irreproachable; incorruptible

phrase

Showing 2 of 3 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

保持环境整卫生。

Bǎochí huánjìng zhěngjié wèishēng.

Keep the environment clean and hygienic.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

社工陈尚喊话剀剀“在耶稣那里无病痛” 检察官:求...

shè gōng chén shàng jié hǎn huà 剀 剀 zài 耶 稣 nà lǐ wú bìng tòng jiǎn chá guān : qiú . . .

Social worker Chen Shangjie shouted "There is no pain in Jesus" Prosecutor: Please...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

智慧经营/润泰精密材料总经理林依 三大策略 练就基本功

zhì huì jīng yíng rùn tài jīng mì cái liào zǒng jīng lǐ lín yī jié sān dà cè lüè liàn jiù jī běn gōng

Smart management/Lin Yijie, general manager of Runtai Precision Materials, three strategies to practice basic skills

99 健康网Feb 2026

...完甩一下后要不要洗手?接触生殖器后必须清

. . . wán shuǎi yī xià hòu yāo bù yāo xǐ shǒu ? jiē chù shēng zhí qì hòu bì xū qīng jié ma

Should I wash my hands after finishing? Is cleaning necessary after touching genitals?

NewsFeb 2026

涉造假访视纪录 剀剀案社工陈尚卸责:保母装爱小孩

shè zào jiǎ fǎng shì jì lù 剀 剀 àn shè gōng chén shàng jié xiè zé bǎo mǔ zhuāng ài xiǎo hái

Involved in falsifying interview records Social worker Chen Shangjie shirked responsibility: the nanny pretended to love the child

EttodayFeb 2026

桃园清队马年开工收运 婉拒红包逾21万转捐公益

táo yuán qīng jié duì mǎ nián kāi gōng shōu yùn wǎn jù hóng bāo yú 2 1 wàn zhuǎn juān gōng yì

The Taoyuan cleaning team started work and transportation in the Year of the Horse, and declined more than 210,000 red envelopes to be donated to public welfare

Tatoeba

我们一定要保持双手清

Wǒmen yīdìngyào bǎochí shuāngshǒu qīngjié.

We must keep our hands clean.

Tatoeba

窗户后,我能很清楚的从窗户看出去。

Qīngjié chuānghu hòu, wǒ néng hěn qīngchu de cóng chuānghu kànchū qù.

After I cleaned the window, I could see through it clearly.

Tatoeba

她有一颗纯的心。

Tā yǒu yī kē chúnjié de xīn.

She has a pure heart.

Tatoeba

他的评论简且击中要害。

Tā de pínglùn jiǎnjié qiě jīzhòng yàohài.

His comment was concise and to the point.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jié

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 洁 (jié) mean in Chinese?
洁 (jié) primarily means "clean." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1521 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 洁 and 脏?
洁 (jié) and 脏 (zāng) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 洁 (clean) vs 脏 (dirty).
How many strokes does 洁 have?
洁 is written with 9 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 洁?
The radical associated with 洁 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 洁?
洁 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 吉 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵吉 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 洁?
Common words with 洁 include: 清洁 (qīng jié, "clean"); 纯洁 (chún jié, "pure"); 清洁工 (qīng jié gōng, "cleaner"); 整洁 (zhěng jié, "neatly"); 圣洁 (shèng jié, "pure and holy"). There are over 45 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 洁 (jié)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jié: 结 (knot, result), 阶 (rank or step), 接 (to receive, to connect), 街 (street), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 洁 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 洁 and the traditional form is 潔.

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.