(jǐn): barely, only, merely

(jǐn) is a Chinese character meaning “barely.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (structural). It ranks #494 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, person. Its radical form (person) appears in many related characters such as (rén, person), (shén, what), (jīn, now).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. barely
  2. only
  3. merely

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticperson

Decomposition: ⿰亻又 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4

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
adverbjǐn jǐnbarely4
conjunctionbù jǐnnot just4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
bù jǐn jǐnnot only
bù jǐn rú cǐnot only that, but ...
jué wú jǐn yǒuone and only (idiom)
jǐn cì yúsecond only to ...
jǐn cǐ ér yǐthat's all
dāng qiě jǐn dāngif and only if
jǐn zuò cān kǎofor reference only
jǐn gōng cān kǎofor reference only
jǐn gōngonly for
shuò guǒ jǐn cúnonly remaining of the great (idiom)
12
Total compounds
50
As first character
8
As last character
42
As middle character

appears in 12 compound words: 50 as the first character, 8 as the last, and 42 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.

shèng
0.48710,764 co-occurrences
0.447118,566 co-occurrences
suì
0.44615,756 co-occurrences
xiàn
0.43226,964 co-occurrences
cún
0.42625,956 co-occurrences
0.41873,764 co-occurrences
huò
0.4146,714 co-occurrences
dāng
0.40926,550 co-occurrences
píng
0.3862,124 co-occurrences
0.37036,822 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

dāngqiějǐndāngHSK 4+

if and only if

jǐngōngcānkǎoHSK 4+

for reference only

phrase
juéwújǐnyǒuHSK 4+

only one of its kind; unique

phrase
shuòguǒjǐncúnHSK 4+

the final and rare survivors

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这不是一个人的问题,而是整个团队的问题。

Zhè bù jǐnjǐn shì yī gè rén de wèntí, ér shì zhěng gè tuánduì de wèntí.

This is not just one person's problem, but the whole team's problem.

InvestingFeb 2026

【早报】1纳米、功耗最低!北大实现芯片领域重要突...

zǎo bào jǐn 1 nà mǐ , gōng hào zuì dī ! běi dà shí xiàn xīn piàn lǐng yù chóng yāo tū . . .

【Morning Post】Only 1 nanometer, the lowest power consumption! Peking University has achieved an important breakthrough in the field of chips...

NewsFeb 2026

退休存20万 大叔靠这2招10年后抱千万

tuì xiū jǐn cún wàn dà shū kào zhè zhāo nián hòu bào qiān wàn

Retiring with just 200,000 yuan, this man used two strategies to amass 10 million yuan in a decade.

三立新聞網Feb 2026

台湾练习赛输韩职5分 2正选投手1责失

tái wān liàn xí sài shū hán zhí 5 fēn 2 zhèng xuǎn tóu shǒu jǐn 1 zé shī

Taiwan lost 5 points to the Korean professional league in the practice game, and 2 regular pitchers only 1 error

百度新闻Feb 2026

美国向联合国支付1.6亿美元部分欠款,为其约20..

měi guó xiàng lián gě guó zhī fù . yì měi yuán bù fēn qiàn kuǎn , jǐn wéi qí yuē . .

The United States has paid $160 million in partial arrears to the United Nations, representing only about 20% of its total outstanding obligations.

百度新闻Feb 2026

8名中国游客在贝加尔湖落水,目前1人获救

míng zhōng guó yóu kè zài bèi jiā ěr hú luò shuǐ , mù qián jǐn rén huò jiù

Eight Chinese tourists fell into Lake Baikal, with only one rescued so far.

Tatoeba

“酒水免费吗?”“女士而已。”

"Jiǔshuǐ miǎnfèi ma?" "Jǐn nǚshì éryǐ."

"Are the drinks free?" "Only for ladies."

Tatoeba

三分之一的成员出席了会议。

Jǐn sān fēn zhī yī de chéngyuán chūxí le huìyì.

Only one third of the members turned up at the meeting.

Tatoeba

他不是一国之君。

Tā bù jǐnjǐn shì yī guó zhī jūn.

He was more than a king.

Tatoeba

劳动不是一种需要,而还是一种愉快。

Láodòng bù jǐn shì yīzhǒng xūyào, ér háishi yīzhǒng yúkuài.

Labor is not merely a necessity but a pleasure.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jǐn

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 仅 (jǐn) mean in Chinese?
仅 (jǐn) primarily means "barely." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #494 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 仅 have?
仅 is written with 4 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 仅?
The radical associated with 仅 is 亻 (person). This radical appears in many characters related to person.
What are the components of 仅?
仅 is composed of: 亻 (semantic), 又 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰亻又 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 仅?
Common words with 仅 include: 仅仅 (jǐn jǐn, "barely"); 不仅仅 (bù jǐn jǐn, "not only"); 不仅 (bù jǐn, "not just"); 不仅如此 (bù jǐn rú cǐ, "not only that, but ..."); 绝无仅有 (jué wú jǐn yǒu, "one and only (idiom)"). There are over 12 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 仅 (jǐn)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jǐn: 巾 (towel), 今 (now), 斤 (catty), 金 (metal, gold), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 仅 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 仅 and the traditional form is 僅.

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.