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).

Spoken pronunciation

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phrasezhàn zhàn jīng jīngtrembling with fear
兢兢业业phrasejīng 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
0.48834 co-occurrences
业yè
0.433476 co-occurrences
战zhàn
0.407302 co-occurrences
惧jù
0.38514 co-occurrences
畏wèi
0.36516 co-occurrences
霜shuāng
0.35310 co-occurrences
夕xī
0.34622 co-occurrences
夜yè
0.33660 co-occurrences
怕pà
0.32916 co-occurrences
慎shèn
0.32814 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.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

观众魏兢表示,整场舞剧充满力量,真切体会到革命先辈保家卫国的英雄气概。

guàn zhòng wèi jīng biǎo shì , zhěng chǎng wǔ jù chōng mǎn lì liàng , zhēn qiē tǐ huì dào gé mìng xiān bèi bǎo jiā wèi guó de yīng xióng qì gài .

Audience member Wei Jing said that the entire dance drama was full of power, and that she truly felt the heroic spirit of the revolutionary forebears who defended their homeland.

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

Homophones — Characters pronounced jīng

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: 经 (pass through,经典), 精 (essence), 惊 (to startle), 警 (to alert), 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.

Practice writing 兢 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.