(jiù): maternal uncle

(jiù) is a Chinese character meaning “maternal uncle.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (phonetic) and (semantic). It ranks #2305 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, man. Its radical form (mortar) appears in many related characters such as (, (literary) chassis of a carriage (contrasted with the canopy 堪)).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. maternal uncle

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticman

Decomposition: ⿱臼男 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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
nounjiù jiumother's brother6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
xiǎo jiù zi(coll.) wife's younger brother
jiù mā(coll.) aunt
jiù fùmother's brother
dà jiù zi(coll.) wife's older brother
jiù mǔwife of mother's brother
jiā jiù(polite) my maternal uncle
wài jiù(literary) father-in-law
jiù yéfather's maternal uncle
jiù sǎowife's brother's wife, sister-in-law
10
Total compounds
60
As first character
20
As last character
20
As middle character

appears in 10 compound words: 60 as the first character, 20 as the last, and 20 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.

shēng
0.5281,182 co-occurrences
0.48111,775 co-occurrences
0.4571,506 co-occurrences
0.446666 co-occurrences
0.423516 co-occurrences
sǎo
0.399234 co-occurrences
niáng
0.385828 co-occurrences
0.378216 co-occurrences
0.3743,618 co-occurrences
0.369942 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le jiù zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "舅" in the dictionary.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

将军澳村屋7岁男童疑弄坏父iPad 遭衣架打及用杯盖掟伤头浴血

jiāng jūn ào cūn wū 7 suì nán tóng yí nòng huài jiù fù i P a d zāo yī jià dǎ jí yòng bēi gài 掟 shāng tóu yù xiě

A 7-year-old boy from a village house in Tseung Kwan O was suspected of breaking his uncle's iPad and was beaten on a hanger and thrown a cup lid on his head and covered in blood

百度新闻Feb 2026

...年初一,广东潮汕一家23个外甥、外甥女给拜年..

. . . nián chū yī , guǎng dōng cháo 汕 yī jiā 2 3 gè wài shēng , wài shēng nǚ gěi jiù jiù bài nián . .

... On the first day of the Lunar New Year, 23 nephews and nieces of a family in Chaoshan, Guangdong Province paid New Year's greetings to their uncles:

Tatoeba

让我担任翻译。

Wǒ jiùjiu ràng wǒ dānrèn fānyì.

My uncle made me serve as interpreter.

Tatoeba

我的在弹吉他。

Wǒ de jiùjiu zài tán jítā.

My uncle is playing the guitar.

Tatoeba

妈妈,为什么我没有长胡子的呢?

Māma, wèishénme wǒ méiyǒu zhǎng húzi de jiùjiu ne?

Mommy, why don't I have an uncle with a beard?

Tatoeba

给我买的这本书。

Wǒ jiùjiu gěi wǒ mǎi de zhè běn shū.

My uncle bought me this book.

Tatoeba

我的爱好打板球。

Wǒ de jiùjiu àihào dǎ bǎnqiú.

My uncle is an amateur cricket player.

Tatoeba

母做了一条新裙子给我。

Wǒ jiùmǔ zuò le yī tiáo xīn qúnzi gěi wǒ.

My aunt made me a new skirt.

Tatoeba

我待在东京的家。

Wǒ dài zài Dōngjīng de jiùjiu jiā.

I am staying with my uncle in Tokyo.

Character Family

Radical Family — Characters sharing the mortar radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced jiù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 舅 (jiù) mean in Chinese?
舅 (jiù) primarily means "maternal uncle." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2305 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 舅 have?
舅 is written with 13 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 舅?
The radical associated with 舅 is 臼 (mortar). This radical appears in many characters related to mortar.
What are the components of 舅?
舅 is composed of: 臼 (phonetic), 男 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱臼男 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 舅?
Common words with 舅 include: 舅舅 (jiù jiu, "mother's brother"); 小舅子 (xiǎo jiù zi, "(coll.) wife's younger brother"); 舅妈 (jiù mā, "(coll.) aunt"); 舅父 (jiù fù, "mother's brother"); 大舅子 (dà jiù zi, "(coll.) wife's older brother"). There are over 10 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 舅 (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 舅 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 舅 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.