灸 (jiǔ): moxibustion (TCM)

灸 (jiǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “moxibustion (tcm).” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 久 (phonetic) and 火 (semantic). It ranks #2982 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 灸 fire. Its radical form 火 (fire) appears in many related characters such as 火 (huǒ, fire), 灯 (dēng, lamp, light), 烟 (yān, smoke).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 火 fire7 strokesFrequency #2982久 phonetic火 semantic

Definitions

  1. moxibustion (TCM)

Etymology & Origin

灸

pictophoneticfire

Decomposition: ⿱久火 (layout: top-bottom)

Components:久phonetic火semantic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
针灸zhēn jiǔacupuncture and moxibustion
无病自灸wú bìng zì jiǔlit. to prescribe moxibustion for oneself when not ill
艾条温和灸ài tiáo wēn hé jiǔgentle stick moxibustion (TCM)
艾条灸ài tiáo jiǔstick moxibustion
灸法jiǔ fǎmoxibustion (TCM)
艾条雀啄灸ài tiáo què zhuó jiǔ"sparrow pecking" moxibustion technique (TCM)
砭灸术biān jiǔ shùacupuncture and moxibustion (Chinese medicine)
艾炷灸ài zhù jiǔcone moxibustion (TCM)
艾灸ài jiǔmoxibustion (TCM)
砭灸biān jiǔsee 砭灸術|砭灸术[bian1 jiu3 shu4]
10
Total compounds
10
As first character
80
As last character
10
As middle character

灸 appears in 10 compound words: 10 as the first character, 80 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 灸 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

针zhēn
0.6303,504 co-occurrences
疗liáo
0.423372 co-occurrences
脉mài
0.422216 co-occurrences
穴xué
0.407168 co-occurrences
艾ài
0.404678 co-occurrences
寸cùn
0.396234 co-occurrences
灼zhuó
0.37436 co-occurrences
拿ná
0.358366 co-occurrences
舞wǔ
0.357384 co-occurrences
医yī
0.349312 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

无病自灸wú bìng zì jiǔHSK 7+

lit. to prescribe moxibustion for oneself when not ill; to cause oneself trouble with superfluous action

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

消防员迅速赶到，扑灭了熊熊大灸。

xiāo fáng yuán xùn sù gǎn dào , pū miè le xióng xióng dà jiǔ .

Firefighters arrived quickly and extinguished the raging blaze.

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

中医“针灸组合拳”辅助 新营医院失智症共照中心启动

zhōng yī zhēn jiǔ zǔ gě quán fǔ zhù xīn yíng yī yuàn shī zhì zhèng gòng zhào zhōng xīn qǐ dòng

Xinying Hospital’s Dementia Care Center Launches with Support from Traditional Chinese Medicine’s “Comprehensive Acupuncture Approach”

Am730Feb 2026

针灸舒缓“手术失败症候群”

zhēn jiǔ shū huǎn shǒu shù shī bài zhèng hòu qún

Acupuncture relieves "surgical failure syndrome"

Tatoeba

很多人都相信针灸有治愈疾病的功效。

Hěn duō rén dōu xiāngxìn zhēnjiǔ yǒu zhìyù jíbìng de gōngxiào.

Many people believe acupuncture can cure diseases.

Character Family

火 Radical Family — Characters sharing the fire radical

煲bāo焙bèi灿càn炒chǎo炊chuī灯dēng炖dùn烦fán耿gěng焊hàn

Related Characters

火huǒ灯dēng烟yān烦fán炼liàn烧shāo燃rán灰huī灾zāi烂làn

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiǔ

纠jiū究jiū揪jiū九jiǔ久jiǔ酒jiǔ旧jiù救jiù就jiù舅jiù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 灸 (jiǔ) mean in Chinese?
灸 (jiǔ) primarily means "moxibustion (tcm)." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2982 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 灸 have?
灸 is written with 7 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 灸?
The radical associated with 灸 is 火 (fire). This radical appears in many characters related to fire.
What are the components of 灸?
灸 is composed of: 久 (phonetic), 火 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱久火 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 灸?
Common words with 灸 include: 针灸 (zhēn jiǔ, "acupuncture and moxibustion"); 无病自灸 (wú bìng zì jiǔ, "lit. to prescribe moxibustion for oneself when not ill"); 艾条温和灸 (ài tiáo wēn hé jiǔ, "gentle stick moxibustion (TCM)"); 艾条灸 (ài tiáo jiǔ, "stick moxibustion"); 灸法 (jiǔ fǎ, "moxibustion (TCM)"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 灸 (jiǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiǔ: 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 灸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 灸 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 灸 with real-time feedback

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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.