敬 (jìng): (bound form) respectful, to respect, to offer politely

敬 (jìng) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) respectful.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 苟 (structural) and 攵 (structural). It ranks #1204 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (bound form) respectful
  2. to respect
  3. to offer politely

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 敬

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
尊敬verb/adjectivezūn jìngto respect5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
致敬verbzhì jìngto salute
敬礼verbjìng lǐto salute
敬意nounjìng yìrespect
敬畏verbjìng wèito revere
敬佩verbjìng pèito esteem
敬重verbjìng zhòngto respect deeply
敬爱verbjìng àito respect and love
敬请verbjìng qǐngplease (do sth) (deferential form)
敬仰verbjìng yǎngto revere
可敬adjectivekě jìngvenerable
敬业verbjìng yèdedicated to one's work
回敬verbhuí jìngto return a compliment
敬酒verbjìng jiǔto toast
崇敬verbchóng jìngto revere
恭敬adjectivegōng jìngdeferential
71
Total compounds
59
As first character
27
As last character
14
As middle character

敬 appears in 71 compound words: 59 as the first character, 27 as the last, and 14 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 敬 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

尊zūn
0.61011,325 co-occurrences
铭míng
0.53211 co-occurrences
致zhì
0.51914,767 co-occurrences
恭gōng
0.5132,318 co-occurrences
畏wèi
0.5022,541 co-occurrences
虔qián
0.497994 co-occurrences
孝xiào
0.4844,246 co-occurrences
崇chóng
0.4382,822 co-occurrences
召zhào
0.43510 co-occurrences
亭tíng
0.4061,304 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (11)

必恭必敬bìgōngbìjìngHSK 5+

reverent and respectful; extremely deferential

phrase
毕恭毕敬bì gōng bì jìngHSK 5+

reverent and respectful; extremely deferential

phrase
此致敬礼cǐzhì jìnglǐHSK 5+

best regards; kindest regards

phrase
敬而远之jìng'éryuǎnzhīHSK 5+

to stay at a respectful distance from; to give a wide berth (to)

phrase
敬老尊贤jìng lǎo zūn xiánHSK 7+

to respect the wise and venerate the worthy (idiom); to honor the great and the good

phrase
敬若神明jìng ruò shén míngHSK 7+

to hold sb in the same regard as one would a god (idiom)

phrase
敬贤礼士jìngxiánlǐshìHSK 7+

to respect people of talent and ability (said of a superior)

phrase
敬谢不敏jìng xiè bù mǐnHSK 5+

please excuse me for not complying; to politely decline

phrase
敬业乐群jìngyèlèqúnHSK 5+

to be committed to one's work or studies and enjoy socializing with friends to learn from one another

phrase
肃然起敬sùránqǐjìngHSK 5+

to feel great respect and admiration (for somebody); to be filled with deep respect (for somebody)

phrase
相敬如宾xiāngjìngrúbīnHSK 5+

to mutually respect

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我们应该尊敬长辈,听取他们的建议。

Wǒmen yīnggāi zūnjìng zhǎngbèi, tīngqǔ tāmen de jiànyì.

We should respect our elders and listen to their advice.

大紀元 | 大紀元新聞網Feb 2026

全球退党中心参加纽约新年游行 华人致敬

quán qiú tuì dǎng zhōng xīn cān jiā niǔ yuē xīn nián yóu háng huá rén zhì jìng

The Global Center for Withdrawal from the Party participates in the New York New Year's Parade Chinese tribute

百度新闻Feb 2026

致敬坚守者:宝山这些身影温暖了我们的团圆年|...

zhì jìng jiān shǒu zhě : bǎo shān zhè xiē shēn yǐng wēn nuǎn le wǒ men de tuán yuán nián . . .

Salute to the perseverance: These figures of Baoshan warmed our reunion year|...

百度新闻Feb 2026

茶百道新春送暖发起“致敬城市守夜人计划”

chá bǎi dào xīn chūn sòng nuǎn fā qǐ zhì jìng chéng shì shǒu yè rén jì huá

Chabadao Launches "Tribute to the City's Nightwatchmen Program" in Chinese New Year

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层|跟着“郭守敬”追星星

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng gēn zhe guō shǒu jìng zhuī xīng xīng

Follow "Guo Shoujing" to chase the stars in Chinese New Year

百度新闻Feb 2026

「春节在岗职工电台」敬你的坚守,敬你的努力!

chūn jié zài gāng zhí gōng diàn tái jìng nǐ de jiān shǒu , jìng nǐ de nǔ lì !

"Spring Festival On-Duty Workers Radio" To your dedication, to your hard work!

Tatoeba

没有人向他恭敬地鞠躬。

Méiyǒu rén xiàng tā gōngjìng de jūgōng.

No one respectfully bowed towards him.

Tatoeba

他的谦逊值得尊敬。

Tā de qiānxùn zhíde zūnjìng.

His modesty is worth respecting.

Tatoeba

我瞬间对你肃然起敬!

Wǒ shùnjiān duì nǐ sùránqǐjìng!

I am immediately in awe of you!

Tatoeba

年轻人应该尊敬老人。

Niánqīngrén yīnggāi zūnjìng lǎorén.

The young should respect the old.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jìng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 敬 (jìng) mean in Chinese?
敬 (jìng) primarily means "(bound form) respectful." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1204 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 敬 have?
敬 is written with 12 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 敬?
The radical associated with 敬 is 攵 (rap). This radical appears in many characters related to rap.
What are the components of 敬?
敬 is composed of: 苟 (structural), 攵 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰苟攵 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 敬?
Common words with 敬 include: 尊敬 (zūn jìng, "to respect"); 致敬 (zhì jìng, "to salute"); 敬礼 (jìng lǐ, "to salute"); 敬意 (jìng yì, "respect"); 敬畏 (jìng wèi, "to revere"). There are over 71 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 敬 (jìng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jìng: 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 敬 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 敬 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 敬 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.