兢 (jīng): to be fearful, apprehensive

兢 (jīng) is a Chinese character meaning “to be fearful.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 克 (structural) and 克 (structural). It ranks #2806 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 儿 legs14 strokesFrequency #2806克 structural克 structural

Definitions

  1. to be fearful
  2. apprehensive

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
战战兢兢zhàn zhàn jīng jīngtrembling with fear
兢兢业业jīng jīng yè yè(idiom) conscientious
战兢兢zhàn jīng jīngshaking with fear
战兢zhàn jīngto tremble
凌兢líng jīng(literary) icy cold
5
Total compounds
20
As first character
40
As last character
40
As middle character

兢 appears in 5 compound words: 20 as the first character, 40 as the last, and 40 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 兢 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

惕tì
0.495102 co-occurrences
业yè
0.4391,428 co-occurrences
战zhàn
0.413906 co-occurrences
惧jù
0.39142 co-occurrences
畏wèi
0.37048 co-occurrences
霜shuāng
0.35830 co-occurrences
夕xī
0.35166 co-occurrences
夜yè
0.341180 co-occurrences
怕pà
0.33448 co-occurrences
慎shèn
0.33342 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (2)

兢兢业业jīngjīngyèyèHSK 7+

cautious and conscientious; diligent and attentive

phrase
战战兢兢zhànzhànjīngjīngHSK 7+

trembling with fear; apprehensive and careful; fearful and cautious

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

了解兢字的来源，有助于理解中国文化。

le xiè jīng zì de lái yuán , yǒu zhù yú lǐ xiè zhōng guó wén huā .

Understanding the origin of the character "兢" helps to comprehend Chinese culture.

Tatoeba

她过去参加派对，总是战战兢兢笨手笨脚的。

Tā guòqù cānjiā pàiduì, zǒngshì zhànzhànjīngjīng bènshǒubènjiǎo de.

She is always afraid of being a klutz when going to parties.

Character Family

儿 Radical Family — Characters sharing the legs radical

充chōng儿ér光guāng克kè免miǎn兔tù先xiān兄xiōng元yuán允yǔn

Related Characters

儿ér元yuán先xiān克kè充chōng光guāng兄xiōng免miǎn兔tù允yǔn

Homophones — Characters pronounced jīng

京jīng经jīng惊jīng睛jīng精jīng景jǐng警jǐng净jìng境jìng静jìng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 兢 (jīng) mean in Chinese?
兢 (jīng) primarily means "to be fearful." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2806 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 兢 have?
兢 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 兢?
The radical associated with 兢 is 儿 (legs). This radical appears in many characters related to legs.
What are the components of 兢?
兢 is composed of: 克 (structural), 克 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰克克 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 兢?
Common words with 兢 include: 战战兢兢 (zhàn zhàn jīng jīng, "trembling with fear"); 兢兢业业 (jīng jīng yè yè, "(idiom) conscientious"); 战兢兢 (zhàn jīng jīng, "shaking with fear"); 战兢 (zhàn jīng, "to tremble"); 凌兢 (líng jīng, "(literary) icy cold"). There are over 5 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 兢 (jīng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jīng: 京 (capital city of a country), 经 (pass through,经典), 惊 (to startle), 睛 (eyeball), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 兢 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 兢 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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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.