舅 (jiù): maternal uncle

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

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

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. maternal uncle

Etymology & Origin

舅

pictophoneticman

Decomposition: ⿱臼男 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 舅

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
舅舅nounjiù jiumother's brother6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
小舅子nounxiǎo jiù zi(coll.) wife's younger brother
舅妈nounjiù mā(coll.) aunt
舅父nounjiù fùmother's brother
大舅子noundà jiù zi(coll.) wife's older brother
舅母nounjiù mǔwife of mother's brother
舅子jiù zi(coll.) wife's brother
大舅哥dà jiù gē(coll.) wife's older brother
家舅jiā jiù(polite) my maternal uncle
舅公jiù gōnggrandmother's brother
外舅wài jiù(literary) father-in-law
舅哥jiù gē(coll.) wife's older brother
舅爷nounjiù yéfather's maternal uncle
舅婆jiù pógrandmother's brother's wife
舅嫂nounjiù sǎowife's brother's wife, sister-in-law
15
Total compounds
67
As first character
13
As last character
20
As middle character

舅 appears in 15 compound words: 67 as the first character, 13 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 舅 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

甥shēng
0.520394 co-occurrences
父fù
0.4603,932 co-occurrences
姑gū
0.450502 co-occurrences
姨yí
0.440222 co-occurrences
嫂sǎo
0.39378 co-occurrences
妈mā
0.381175 co-occurrences
娘niáng
0.379276 co-occurrences
爷yé
0.37372 co-occurrences
母mǔ
0.3691,206 co-occurrences
仔zǐ
0.364314 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了舅字的详细解释。

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.

少数派Aug 2026

此时嫂子的大舅和舅妈两人也驱车赶到,都在搭把手互相帮忙着宰羊。

cǐ shí sǎo zǐ de dà jiù hé jiù mā liǎng rén yě qū chē gǎn dào , dōu zài dā bǎ shǒu hù xiāng bāng máng zhe zǎi yáng .

Just then, my sister-in-law’s maternal uncle and aunt arrived by car, and they both pitched in to help slaughter the sheep.

中国新闻网·文化Jul 2026

吕洞宾、钟离权一拍即合,何仙姑、铁拐李、韩湘子、曹国舅、蓝采和、张果老全员就位!

lǚ dòng bīn , zhōng lí quán yī pāi jí gě , hé xiān gū , tiě guǎi lǐ , hán 湘 zǐ , cáo guó jiù , lán cǎi hé , zhāng guǒ lǎo quán yuán jiù wèi !

Lü Dongbin and Zhongli Quan hit it off immediately, and He Xiangu, Tieguai Li, Han Xiangzi, Cao Guojiu, Lan Caihe, and Zhang Guolao were all in place!

少数派Jun 2026

后来,舅舅胡三元因演出事故入狱,失去了舅舅的保护,青娥成为了一名烧火丫头。

hòu lái , jiù jiù hú sān yuán yīn yǎn chū shì gù rù yù , shī qù le jiù jiù de bǎo hù , qīng é chéng wéi le yī míng shāo huǒ yā tóu .

Later, her uncle Hu Sanyuan was imprisoned following an accident during a performance, and without his protection, Qing'e became a kitchen maid.

Hk01.comFeb 2026

将军澳村屋7岁男童疑弄坏舅父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、外甥女给舅舅拜年..

. . . 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

我舅舅让我担任翻译。

Wǒ jiùjiu ràng wǒ dānrèn fānyì.

My uncle made me serve as interpreter.

Tatoeba

我的舅舅在弹吉他。

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舅舅呢?

Māma, wèishénme wǒ méiyǒu zhǎng húzi de jiùjiu ne?

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

Tatoeba

我舅舅给我买的这本书。

Wǒ jiùjiu gěi wǒ mǎi de zhè běn shū.

My uncle bought me this book.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 男 (man) component

臼 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 15 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 舅 (jiù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jiù: 就 ((after a suppositional clause) in that case), 究 (research), 久 ((of a period of time) long), 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 舅 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken 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.