(jiù): old, opposite: new 新, former

(jiù) is a Chinese character meaning “old.” Classified as HSK Level 3 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #915 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, older than 丨 the sun 日. Its radical form (sun) appears in many related characters such as (, sun, day), (zǎo, early, morning), (shí, time, hour).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. old
  2. opposite: new 新
  3. former

Etymology & Origin

ideographicOlder than 丨 the sun 日

Decomposition: ⿰丨日 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
adverbréng jiùstill (remaining)6
verb/adverbyī jiùas before6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
jiù jīn shānSan Francisco, California
怀huái jiùto feel nostalgic
jiù shìold affair
pò jiùshabby
xù jiùto reminisce
chén jiùold-fashioned
jiù huòsecond-hand goods
zhào jiùas before
jiù yuēformer agreement
shǒu jiùconservative
gè jiùsee 個舊市|个旧市[Ge4 jiu4 Shi4]
jiù qíngold affection
jiù shìold style
jiù rìformer times
jiù ànold court case
100
Total compounds
67
As first character
23
As last character
10
As middle character

appears in 100 compound words: 67 as the first character, 23 as the last, and 10 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.

zhèn
0.790380,880 co-occurrences
zhǐ
0.64387,246 co-occurrences
huò
0.606189,210 co-occurrences
shì
0.561195,162 co-occurrences
0.45223,773 co-occurrences
táng
0.44116,524 co-occurrences
shū
0.39619,758 co-occurrences
chèn
0.38621,174 co-occurrences
怀huái
0.3863,928 co-occurrences
réng
0.37311,892 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (16)

bùniànjiù'èHSK 6+

to not bear a grudge; to forgive and forget; to let bygones be bygones

phrase
chújiùbùxīnHSK 5+

to demolish the old and establish the new

phrase
chú jiù gēng xīnHSK 3+

to replace the old with new (idiom)

phrase
gùjiùbùqìHSK 4+

do not neglect old friends

proverb
jiù chóu xīn hènHSK 6+

old worries with new hatred added (idiom); afflicted by problems old and new

phrase
jiù tài fù méngHSK 7+

see 故態復萌|故态复萌[gu4 tai4 fu4 meng2]

phrase
shuài yóu jiù zhāngHSK 5+

to act in accordance with the old rules (idiom); to follow a proven formula

phrase
qìjiùtúxīnHSK 4+

to turn over a new leaf

phrase
sòngjiùyíngxīnHSK 3+

to let go of the old and welcome in the new

phrase
tàijiùhuànxīnHSK 6+

to eliminate the old and replace them with the new

phrase
xǐxīnyànjiùHSK 4+

to love the new and loathe the old; to be fickle in affection (usually said of men)

phrase
xīn chóu jiù hènHSK 6+

new worries added to old hatred (idiom); afflicted by problems old and new

phrase

Showing 12 of 16 idioms containing .

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

今天气很好,适合去公园散步。

jīn tiān jiù qì hěn hǎo , shì gě qù gōng yuán sàn bù .

The air quality is excellent today, perfect for a stroll in the park.

LtnFeb 2026

北视家协点字设备老停产 恐影响全台视障生教材制作

běi shì jiā xié diǎn zì shè bèi lǎo jiù tíng chǎn kǒng yǐng xiǎng quán tái shì zhàng shēng jiào cái zhì zuò

The old braille equipment of the Beishi Family Association may affect the production of textbooks for visually impaired students in Taiwan

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

军系客运重现怀女车掌 高雄“真车掌”分享职涯甘苦

jūn xì kè yùn chóng xiàn huái jiù nǚ chē zhǎng gāo xióng zhēn chē zhǎng fēn xiǎng zhí yá gān kǔ

Military passenger transport recreates the nostalgic female conductor Kaohsiung "real conductor" shares the joys and sorrows of his career

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

上传照 嫌犯厨余蒸煮未落实

shàng chuán jiù zhào xián fàn chú yú zhēng zhǔ wèi luò shí

Upload old photos The suspect's kitchen waste steaming has not been implemented

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Feb 2026

968所学校列第7级残!校舍安全再敲警钟

9 6 8 suǒ xué jiào liè dì 7 jí cán jiù ! jiào shě ān quán zài qiāo jǐng zhōng

968 schools are listed as Grade 7 dilapidated! School building safety sounded the alarm again

PcmFeb 2026

村屋楼入门 5G 路由器恩物 Wavlink...

cūn wū jiù lóu rù mén 5 G lù yóu qì ēn wù W a v l i n k . . .

Village House Old Building Entry 5G Router Grace Wavlink...

Tatoeba

我偶然在巴士上碰见了一位朋友。

Wǒ ǒurán zài bāshì shàng pèngjiàn le yī wèi jiù péngyou.

I bumped into an old friend on the bus.

Tatoeba

那些法都被废除了。

Nàxiē jiù fǎ dōu bèi fèichú le.

Those old laws were all done away with.

Tatoeba

他扔了很多信件。

Tā rēng le hěn duō jiù xìnjiàn.

He threw away a bunch of old letters.

Tatoeba

老婆叫我把这顶帽子丢掉。

Lǎopó jiào wǒ bǎ zhè dǐng jiù màozi diūdiào.

My wife asked me to throw this old hat away.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 旧 (jiù) mean in Chinese?
旧 (jiù) primarily means "old." It is classified as HSK Level 3, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #915 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 旧 have?
旧 is written with 5 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 旧?
The radical associated with 旧 is 日 (sun). This radical appears in many characters related to sun.
What are the components of 旧?
旧 is composed of: 丨 (structural), 日 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰丨日 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 旧?
Common words with 旧 include: 旧金山 (jiù jīn shān, "San Francisco, California"); 仍旧 (réng jiù, "still (remaining)"); 依旧 (yī jiù, "as before"); 怀旧 (huái jiù, "to feel nostalgic"); 旧事 (jiù shì, "old affair"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 旧 (jiù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiù: 纠 (to gather together), 究 (research), 揪 (to seize), 九 (nine), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 旧 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 旧 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.