警 (jǐng): to alert, to warn, police

警 (jǐng) is a Chinese character meaning “to alert.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 敬 (phonetic) and 言 (semantic). It ranks #687 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 警 speech. Its radical form 讠 (speech) appears in many related characters such as 认 (rèn, to recognize, to admit), 记 (jì, to remember, to record), 识 (shí, to know, knowledge).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to alert
  2. to warn
  3. police

Etymology & Origin

警

pictophoneticspeech

Decomposition: ⿱敬言 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 警

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
警察nounjǐng chápolice4
警告verbjǐng gàoto warn6
报警verbbào jǐngto sound an alarm5
交警nounjiāo jǐngtraffic police (abbr. for 交通警察)4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
警官nounjǐng guānconstable
警方nounjǐng fāngpolice
警报nounjǐng bào(fire) alarm
警察局nounjǐng chá júpolice station
警卫verbjǐng wèito stand guard over
警员nounjǐng yuánpolice officer
警惕verbjǐng tìto be on the alert
警徽nounjǐng huīpolice badge
警戒verbjǐng jièto warn
特警nountè jǐngSWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics)
警车nounjǐng chēpolice car
巡警nounxún jǐngpolice patrol
狱警yù jǐngprison officer
刑警nounxíng jǐngcriminal police (abbr. for 刑事警察)
警署nounjǐng shǔpolice station (abbr. for 警察署)
100
Total compounds
48
As first character
35
As last character
17
As middle character

警 appears in 100 compound words: 48 as the first character, 35 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 警 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

察chá
0.662151,333 co-occurrences
惕tì
0.5653,400 co-occurrences
告gào
0.52154,607 co-occurrences
方fāng
0.50299,830 co-occurrences
署shǔ
0.50020,632 co-occurrences
刑xíng
0.49817,176 co-occurrences
戒jiè
0.46410,383 co-occurrences
局jú
0.46232,048 co-occurrences
暴bào
0.45813,546 co-occurrences
卫wèi
0.44111,876 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

便衣警察biàn yī jǐng cháHSK 4+

plain-clothed policeman

phrase
惩一警百chéngyījǐngbǎiHSK 6+

to make an example of somebody

phrase
警世通言jǐng shì tōng yánHSK 4+

Stories to Caution the World, vernacular short stories by Feng Menglong 馮夢龍|冯梦龙 published in 1624

phrase
秘密警察mìmì jǐngcháHSK 5+

secret police; officer of a secret police squad

noun
人民警察rénmín jǐngcháHSK 4+

people's police

noun
刑事警察xíngshì jǐngcháHSK 7+

criminal investigation bureau; officer of the criminal investigation bureau

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他警言谨慎,从不说没有根据的话。

tā jǐng yán jǐn shèn , cóng bù shuō méi yǒu gēn jù de huà .

He is cautious and prudent, never uttering unfounded remarks.

RfiFeb 2026

默茨访华前警告不要抱有“幻想”

mò 茨 fǎng huá qián jǐng gào bù yāo bào yǒu huàn xiǎng

Mertz warned against "illusions" before visiting China

LtnFeb 2026

马来西亚外海7.1强震 震源极深未发海啸警报

mǎ lái xī yà wài hǎi 7 . 1 qiáng zhèn zhèn yuán jí shēn wèi fā hǎi xiào jǐng bào

The 7.1 strong earthquake off the coast of Malaysia had a very deep epicenter and no tsunami warning was issued

百度新闻Feb 2026

日本流感疫情持续高位,七成地区达“警报”级别

rì běn liú gǎn yì qíng chí xù gāo wèi , qī chéng dì qū dá jǐng bào jí bié

The influenza epidemic in Japan continues to be high, with 70% of the regions reaching the "alert" level

百度新闻Feb 2026

视频丨跨越4000多公里 为了让援疆民警尝到家的味..

shì pín 丨 kuà yuè 4 0 0 0 duō gōng lǐ wéi le ràng yuán jiāng mín jǐng cháng dào jiā de wèi . .

Video丨Spanning more than 4,000 kilometers, in order to let the police who aid Xinjiang taste the taste of home:

Tatoeba

警察找到指纹了吗?

Jǐngchá zhǎodào zhǐwén le ma?

Did the police find any fingerprints?

Tatoeba

警察逮捕了汤姆吗?

Jǐngchá dàibǔ le Tāngmǔ ma?

Did the police arrest Tom?

Tatoeba

他超速驾驶,被警察逮捕了。

Tā chāosù jiàshǐ, bèi jǐngchá dàibǔ le.

The policeman arrested him for speeding.

Tatoeba

如有火警,切勿使用升降机。

Rú yǒu huǒjǐng, qièwù shǐyòng shēngjiàngjī.

In case of fire, do not use the lift.

Tatoeba

警察瞄准了那个男人。

Jǐngchá miáozhǔn le nàge nánrén.

The policeman aimed his gun at the man.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 言 (speech) component

讠 Radical Family — Characters sharing the speech radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced jǐng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 警 (jǐng) mean in Chinese?
警 (jǐng) primarily means "to alert." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #687 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 警 and 擎?
警 (jǐng) and 擎 (qíng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 讠 vs 扌 (same 敬 component).
How many strokes does 警 have?
警 is written with 19 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 警?
The radical associated with 警 is 讠 (speech). This radical appears in many characters related to speech.
What are the components of 警?
警 is composed of: 敬 (phonetic), 言 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱敬言 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 警?
Common words with 警 include: 警察 (jǐng chá, "police"); 警官 (jǐng guān, "constable"); 警方 (jǐng fāng, "police"); 警告 (jǐng gào, "to warn"); 报警 (bào jǐng, "to sound an alarm"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 警 (jǐng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jǐng: 经 (pass through,经典), 精 (essence), 惊 (to startle), 境 (border, situation), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 警 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 警 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 警 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.