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).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 穴 cave12 strokesFrequency #2734穴 semantic君 phonetic

Definitions

  1. embarrassed

Etymology & Origin

窘

pictophoneticcave

Decomposition: ⿱穴君 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:穴semantic君phonetic

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jiǒng jìngawkward situation
窘迫jiǒng pòpoverty-stricken
困窘kùn jiǒngembarrassment
受窘shòu jiǒngembarrassed
窘况jiǒng 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
0.5512,820 co-occurrences
困kùn
0.5402,052 co-occurrences
境jìng
0.5274,830 co-occurrences
尬gà
0.42366 co-occurrences
陷xiàn
0.420546 co-occurrences
辱rǔ
0.406156 co-occurrences
艰jiān
0.39566 co-occurrences
呼hū
0.393486 co-occurrences
吸xī
0.391474 co-occurrences
饥jī
0.38154 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.

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

穴 Radical Family — Characters sharing the cave radical

窗chuāng究jiū空kōng窟kū窥kuī窿lóng窍qiào窃qiè邃suì窝wō

Related Characters

穿chuān空kōng突tū究jiū穷qióng窗chuāng穴xué窃qiè窄zhǎi窍qiào

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 裙?
窘 (jiǒng) and 裙 (qún) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 穴 vs 衤 (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.

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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.