窘 (jiǒng): embarrassed

窘 (jiǒng) is a Chinese character meaning “embarrassed.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 穴 (semantic) and 君 (phonetic). It ranks #2734 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 窘 cave. Its radical form 穴 (cave) appears in many related characters such as 穿 (chuān, to wear, 穿透), 空 (kōng, empty, sky), 突 (tū, sudden).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. embarrassed

Etymology & Origin

窘

pictophoneticcave

Decomposition: ⿱穴君 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
窘境nounjiǒng jìngawkward situation
窘迫adjectivejiǒng pòpoverty-stricken
困窘adjectivekùn jiǒngembarrassment
受窘verbshòu jiǒngembarrassed
窘况nounjiǒng kuàngpredicament
发窘fā jiǒngto feel embarrassment
窘匮jiǒng kuìdestitute
7
Total compounds
57
As first character
43
As last character
0
As middle character

窘 appears in 7 compound words: 57 as the first character, 43 as the last, and 0 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 窘 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

迫pò
0.543940 co-occurrences
困kùn
0.532684 co-occurrences
境jìng
0.4861,614 co-occurrences
陷xiàn
0.425185 co-occurrences
尬gà
0.41722 co-occurrences
辱rǔ
0.40052 co-occurrences
艰jiān
0.38922 co-occurrences
呼hū
0.387162 co-occurrences
吸xī
0.385158 co-occurrences
饥jī
0.37618 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他被问得哑口无言,感到很窘迫。

Tā bèi wèn de yǎkǒu wú yán, gǎndào hěn jiǒngpò.

He was speechless when questioned and felt very embarrassed.

中国新闻网·文化Sep 2026

惠英红的人生开始于一个窘蹙的童年。

huì yīng hóng de rén shēng kāi shǐ yú yī gè jiǒng 蹙 de tóng nián .

Annie Hui's life began with a difficult childhood.

爱范儿May 2026

大家都在用同一套图纸建房子,市场不可避免地陷入了越造越像的窘境。

dà jiā dōu zài yòng tóng yī tào tú zhǐ jiàn fáng zǐ , shì chǎng bù kě bì miǎn dì xiàn rù le yuè zào yuè xiàng de jiǒng jìng .

Since everyone is using the same set of blueprints to build houses, the market has inevitably fallen into a predicament where new buildings look more and more alike.

少数派May 2026

相比起这样的窘境,我最近2年的旅游出行都比较惬意。

xiāng bǐ qǐ zhè yàng de jiǒng jìng , wǒ zuì jìn 2 nián de lǚ yóu chū háng dōu bǐ jiào qiè yì .

Compared to that predicament, my travels over the past two years have been quite pleasant.

爱范儿Apr 2026

体验上的窘迫在市场数据上也有所体现。

tǐ yàn shàng de jiǒng pò zài shì chǎng shǔ jù shàng yě yǒu suǒ tǐ xiàn .

The challenges in the user experience are also reflected in the market data.

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

...5元现金股利除息 股价跌破90元惨陷贴息窘境

. . . 5 yuán xiàn jīn gǔ lì chú xī gǔ jià diē pò 9 0 yuán cǎn xiàn tiē xī jiǒng jìng

...After a 5-yuan cash dividend went ex-dividend, the stock price fell below 90 yuan, plunging the company into a dire situation where it is trading at a discount to its dividend yield.

Tatoeba

我窘得想找个洞钻进去。

Wǒ jiǒng de xiǎng zhǎo gè dòng zuānjìn qù.

I'm so embarrassed I could dig a hole and crawl into it.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 穴 (cave) component

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 窘 (jiǒng) mean in Chinese?
窘 (jiǒng) primarily means "embarrassed." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2734 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 窘 and 群?
窘 (jiǒng) and 群 (qún) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 穴 vs 羊 (same 君 component).
How many strokes does 窘 have?
窘 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 窘?
The radical associated with 窘 is 穴 (cave). This radical appears in many characters related to cave.
What are the components of 窘?
窘 is composed of: 穴 (semantic), 君 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱穴君 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 窘?
Common words with 窘 include: 窘境 (jiǒng jìng, "awkward situation"); 窘迫 (jiǒng pò, "poverty-stricken"); 困窘 (kùn jiǒng, "embarrassment"); 受窘 (shòu jiǒng, "embarrassed"); 窘况 (jiǒng kuàng, "predicament"). There are over 7 compound words containing this character.
Is 窘 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 窘 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 窘 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.