(jiǔ): nine, 9

(jiǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “nine.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 丿 (structural) and (structural). It ranks #445 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically pictographic, an elbow. Its radical form (second) appears in many related characters such as (, also), (, (bound form) to practice), (shū, abbr. for 書經|书经).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. nine
  2. 9

Etymology & Origin

pictographicAn elbow

Decomposition: ⿻丿乙 (layout: overlay)

Stroke Order

1
2

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Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jiǔ yuèSeptember
shí jiǔnineteen
jiǔ shíninety
shí yǒu bā jiǔmost likely
jiǔ yuè fènSeptember
jiǔ zhōudivision of China during earliest dynasties
jiǔ wěi húnine-tailed fox (mythological creature)
jiǔ tiānthe ninth heaven
shí zhī bā jiǔmost likely
shí ná jiǔ wěn(idiom) to be a cinch
jiǔ xiāo yún wàibeyond the topmost clouds (idiom)
bā jiǔ bù lí shípretty close
jiǔ sǐ yī shēngnine deaths and still alive (idiom)
sān jiào jiǔ liúthe Three Religions (Daoism, Confucianism, Buddhism) and Nine Schools (Confucians, Daoists, Yin-Yang, Legalists, Logi...
jiǔ lóngKowloon district of Hong Kong
100
Total compounds
70
As first character
11
As last character
19
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 70 as the first character, 11 as the last, and 19 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

shí
0.625634,550 co-occurrences
0.56112 co-occurrences
juǎn
0.49997,272 co-occurrences
bǎi
0.47385,482 co-occurrences
0.466333,996 co-occurrences
èr
0.452183,204 co-occurrences
0.45083,685 co-occurrences
zhōu
0.43097,938 co-occurrences
0.42762,381 co-occurrences
jiè
0.41525,266 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (19)

广guǎng jiǔ tiě lùHSK 4+

Guangdong and Kowloon railway

phrase
Jiǔ Èr GòngshìHSK 3+

the 1992 Consensus.

jiǔ jiǔ guī yīHSK 6+

nine divide by nine is one (abacus rule); when all is said and done

phrase
JiǔlóngchéngzhàiHSK 7+

Kowloon Walled City

jiǔniúyīmáoHSK 3+

a drop in the bucket

phrase
jiǔsǐyīshēngHSK 4+

narrow escape from death

phrase
jiǔ tiān xuán nǚHSK 7+

Xuan Nü, a fairy in Chinese mythology

phrase
jiǔ zhāng suàn shùHSK 4+

The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art

phrase
sānjiàojiǔliúHSK 4+

different schools of thought; people from all walks of life

noun
sān zhēn jiǔ lièHSK 7+

(of a widow) faithful to the death to her husband's memory

phrase
shí chéng jiǔ wěnHSK 5+

see 十拿九穩|十拿九稳[shi2 na2 jiu3 wen3]

phrase
shídǔjiǔshūHSK 7+

gambling is a scam

phrase

Showing 12 of 19 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

月份是开学的季节,学生们都回到了校园。

Jiǔ yuèfèn shì kāixué de jìjié, xuéshēngmen dōu huí dào le xiàoyuán.

September is the school season; students have all returned to campus.

Nownews今日新聞Feb 2026

拜天公8点禁忌!踩雷衰运整年 天公是谁、...

chū jiǔ bài tiān gōng 8 diǎn jīn jì ! cǎi léi shuāi yùn zhěng nián tiān gōng shì shéi , . . .

The ninth day of the first month is taboo at 8 o'clock to worship the gods! Who is the god of heaven all year round、...

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Feb 2026

陈伟智:人生还在战斗的把刀─《功夫》是不是你还期待的那个模样?

chén wěi zhì : rén shēng hái zài zhàn dǒu de jiǔ bǎ dāo gōng fū shì bù shì nǐ hái qī dài de nà gè mó yàng ?

Chen Weizhi: The nine knives that are still fighting in life - is "Kung Fu" the look you are still looking forward to?

Hk01.comFeb 2026

新年|高铁西龙站现返港潮 市民指内地物价便宜故留到最...

xīn nián gāo tiě xī jiǔ lóng zhàn xiàn fǎn gǎng cháo shì mín zhǐ nèi dì wù jià biàn yí gù liú dào zuì . . .

New Year|High Speed Rail West Kowloon Station is now returning to Hong Kong Citizens say that the price in the mainland is cheap, so they stay for the most...

百度新闻Feb 2026

新春走基层|东阿旬老人的别样新春:养老院里有“医..

xīn chūn zǒu jī céng dōng ā jiǔ xún lǎo rén de bié yàng xīn chūn yǎng lǎo yuàn lǐ yǒu yī . .

New Year's Day|Dong'a Ninety-year-old's New Year's Day: Nursing home in the "medical...

百度新闻Feb 2026

9万元现金失而复得 兰州公安安宁分局合派出所的别..

mò yuán xiàn jīn shī ér fù dé lán zhōu gōng ān ān nìng fēn jú jiǔ gě pā chū suǒ de bié . .

90,000 yuan in cash lost and found Lanzhou Public Security Anning Branch Jiuhe police station of the Bu...

Tatoeba

点以后打电话比较便宜吗?

Jiǔ diǎn yǐhòu dǎdiànhuà bǐjiào piányi ma?

Is it cheaper to call after 9:00?

Tatoeba

在明天早上点见可以吗?

Zài míngtiān zǎoshang jiǔ diǎn jiàn kěyǐ ma?

Can we meet tomorrow morning at nine?

Tatoeba

明天晚上点怎么样?

Míngtiān wǎnshang jiǔ diǎn zěnmeyàng?

How about tomorrow night at nine?

Tatoeba

一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、、十。

Yī, èr, sān, sì, wǔ, liù, qī, bā, jiǔ, shí.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the second radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 九 (jiǔ) mean in Chinese?
九 (jiǔ) primarily means "nine." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #445 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 九 have?
九 is written with 2 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 九?
The radical associated with 九 is 乙 (second). This radical appears in many characters related to second.
What are the components of 九?
九 is composed of: 丿 (structural), 乙 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿻丿乙 with a overlay layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 九?
Common words with 九 include: 九月 (jiǔ yuè, "September"); 十九 (shí jiǔ, "nineteen"); 九十 (jiǔ shí, "ninety"); 十有八九 (shí yǒu bā jiǔ, "most likely"); 九月份 (jiǔ yuè fèn, "September"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 九 (jiǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiǔ: 纠 (to gather together), 究 (research), 揪 (to seize), 久 ((of a period of time) long), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 九 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 九 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.