菁 (jīng): leek flower, lush, luxuriant

菁 (jīng) is a Chinese character meaning “leek flower.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 艹 (semantic) and 青 (phonetic). It ranks #4295 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 菁 plant. Its radical form 艹 (grass) appears in many related characters such as 蒸 (zhēng, to steam), 草 (cǎo, grass), 花 (huā, flower).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. leek flower
  2. lush
  3. luxuriant

Etymology & Origin

菁

pictophoneticplant

Decomposition: ⿱艹青 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
芜菁wú jīngturnip
去芜存菁qù wú cún jīnglit. to get rid of the weeds and keep the flowers
菁英nounjīng yīngelite
菁华nounjīng huáthe cream
芜菁甘蓝wú jīng gān lánrutabaga (vegetable)
蔓菁nounmán jingturnip
6
Total compounds
33
As first character
50
As last character
17
As middle character

菁 appears in 6 compound words: 33 as the first character, 50 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 菁 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

工gōng
0.32112 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

去芜存菁qù wú cún jīng

lit. to get rid of the weeds and keep the flowers; to separate the wheat from the chaff (idiom)

phrase

Example Sentences

中国新闻网·文化Oct 2026

项菁 摄 过去,人们对鲁迅的认知大多来自书本。

xiàng jīng shè guò qù , rén men duì lǔ xùn de rèn zhī dà duō lái zì shū běn .

Photo by Xiang Jing. In the past, people’s understanding of Lu Xun came mostly from books.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

带着上述观察,本报记者与山西省科普作家协会会员方菁展开了对话。

dài zhe shàng shù guān chá , běn bào jì zhě yǔ shān xī shěng kē pǔ zuò jiā xié huì huì yuán fāng jīng zhǎn kāi le duì huà .

With these observations in mind, our reporter spoke with Fang Jing, a member of the Shanxi Association of Science Writers.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

项菁 摄 当晚剧场内座无虚席,掌声如潮。

xiàng jīng shè dāng wǎn jù chǎng nèi zuò wú xū xí , zhǎng shēng rú cháo .

Photo by Xiang Jing. That evening, the theater was packed to capacity, and the applause was thunderous.

中国新闻网·文化Jun 2026

项菁 摄 摸清“家底”,构建名人“新谱系” 正值夏季,绍兴名人馆内游人如织。

xiàng jīng shè mō qīng jiā dǐ , gòu jiàn míng rén xīn pǔ xì zhèng zhí xià jì , shào xīng míng rén guǎn nèi yóu rén rú zhī .

Photo by Xiang Jing: Taking Stock of Local Resources to Build a “New Genealogy” of Famous Figures. With summer in full swing, the Shaoxing Hall of Famous Figures is bustling with visitors.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 艹 (plant) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced jīng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 菁 (jīng) mean in Chinese?
菁 (jīng) primarily means "leek flower." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #4295 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 菁 and 情?
菁 (jīng) and 情 (qíng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 艹 vs 忄 (same 青 component).
How many strokes does 菁 have?
菁 is written with 11 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 菁?
The radical associated with 菁 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 菁?
菁 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 青 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹青 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 菁?
Common words with 菁 include: 芜菁 (wú jīng, "turnip"); 去芜存菁 (qù wú cún jīng, "lit. to get rid of the weeds and keep the flowers"); 菁英 (jīng yīng, "elite"); 菁华 (jīng huá, "the cream"); 芜菁甘蓝 (wú jīng gān lán, "rutabaga (vegetable)"). There are over 6 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 菁 (jīng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jīng: 精 (essence), 睛 (eyeball). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 菁 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 菁 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 菁 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.