惧 (jù): to fear

惧 (jù) is a Chinese character meaning “to fear.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 忄 (semantic) and 具 (phonetic). It ranks #1605 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 惧 heart. Its radical form 忄 (heart) appears in many related characters such as 忙 (máng, busy), 快 (kuài, fast, happy), 怎 (zěn, how).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to fear

Etymology & Origin

惧

pictophoneticheart

Decomposition: ⿰忄具 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 惧

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
恐惧adjectivekǒng jùto be frightened6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
畏惧verbwèi jùto fear
惧怕verbjù pàto be afraid
恐惧症nounkǒng jù zhèngphobia
惧高症jù gāo zhèngacrophobia
惊惧verbjīng jùto be alarmed
疑惧verbyí jùmisgivings
坦然无惧tǎn rán wú jùremain calm and undaunted
广场恐惧guǎng chǎng kǒng jùagoraphobia
同性恋恐惧症tóng xìng liàn kǒng jù zhènghomophobia
社交恐惧症nounshè jiāo kǒng jù zhèngsocial phobia
惧内verbjù nèihenpecked
广场恐惧症nounguǎng chǎng kǒng jù zhèngagoraphobia
密集恐惧症nounmì jí kǒng jù zhèngtrypophobia
危惧verbwēi jùafraid
幽闭恐惧症nounyōu bì kǒng jù zhèngclaustrophobia
20
Total compounds
15
As first character
55
As last character
30
As middle character

惧 appears in 20 compound words: 15 as the first character, 55 as the last, and 30 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 惧 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

拎līn
0.74111 co-occurrences
恐kǒng
0.6647,617 co-occurrences
畏wèi
0.6491,768 co-occurrences
怕pà
0.5511,130 co-occurrences
呕ǒu
0.48066 co-occurrences
惭cán
0.47640 co-occurrences
忧yōu
0.470238 co-occurrences
症zhèng
0.464862 co-occurrences
惊jīng
0.449250 co-occurrences
祸huò
0.440122 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

惧法朝朝乐,欺公日日忧。

Jù fǎ zhāo zhāo lè, qī gōng rì rì yōu.

Fearing the law brings daily joy; deceiving the public brings daily worry.

StheadlineMar 2026

...忻乳癌复发陷低潮 办生前追思会克服死亡恐惧“将死亡拎出来讲!” 将赴深圳求医寻生机

. . . 忻 rǔ ái fù fā xiàn dī cháo bàn shēng qián zhuī sī huì kè fú sǐ wáng kǒng jù jiāng sǐ wáng līn chū lái jiǎng ! jiāng fù shēn 圳 qiú yī xún shēng jī

... Xin breast cancer recurred and fell into a low ebb, holding a memorial service before his death, overcoming the fear of death, "Take death out and talk about it!" Will go to Shenzhen to seek medical treatment and find a chance to survive

Investing 香港Feb 2026

“别人恐惧我贪婪“!“Citrini恐慌”标记市场...

bié rén kǒng jù wǒ tān lán ! C i t r i n i kǒng huāng biāo jì shì chǎng . . .

"Others are afraid of my greed"! Citrini panic "marks the market...

NewsFeb 2026

...!?英伟达重挫5%拖累美股跳水!加密“恐惧”未退、日元走强、油价V型反弹

. . . ! ? yīng wěi dá chóng cuò tuō lěi měi gǔ tiào shuǐ ! jiā mì kǒng jù wèi tuì rì yuán zǒu qiáng yóu jià xíng fǎn dàn

...!? Nvidia fell 5%, dragging down the US stock market! Crypto "fear" has not subsided, the yen has strengthened, and oil prices have rebounded in a V-shape

NewsFeb 2026

无惧美国软体股估值下修!这档海外月配高股息E...

wú jù měi guó ruǎn tǐ gǔ gū zhí xià xiū ! zhè dàng hǎi wài yuè pèi gāo gǔ xī . . .

Don't be afraid of the downward revision of the valuation of U.S. soft stocks! This overseas monthly dividend E...

NewsFeb 2026

黄齐元/国际新趋势 台需戒慎恐惧

huáng qí yuán guó jì xīn qū shì tái xū jiè shèn kǒng jù

Huang Qiyuan/New International Trends Taiwan needs to be cautious and fearful

Tatoeba

天使畏惧处, 愚人敢闯入。

Tiānshǐ wèijù chǔ, yúrén gǎn chuǎngrù.

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Tatoeba

无知是恐惧之母,也是崇拜之母。

Wúzhī shì kǒngjù zhī mǔ, yě shì chóngbài zhī mǔ.

Ignorance is the mother of fear as well as of admiration.

Tatoeba

恐惧比利剑更伤人。

Kǒngjù Bǐlì jiàn gèng shāngrén.

Fear is more harmful than the sharpest of swords.

Tatoeba

恐惧很快变成愤怒。

Kǒngjù hěn kuài biànchéng fènnù.

Fear quickly turned into anger.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 忄 (heart) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced jù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 惧 (jù) mean in Chinese?
惧 (jù) primarily means "to fear." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1605 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 惧 have?
惧 is written with 11 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 惧?
The radical associated with 惧 is 忄 (heart). This radical appears in many characters related to heart.
What are the components of 惧?
惧 is composed of: 忄 (semantic), 具 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰忄具 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 惧?
Common words with 惧 include: 恐惧 (kǒng jù, "to be frightened"); 畏惧 (wèi jù, "to fear"); 惧怕 (jù pà, "to be afraid"); 恐惧症 (kǒng jù zhèng, "phobia"); 惧高症 (jù gāo zhèng, "acrophobia"). There are over 20 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 惧 (jù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jù: 俱 ((literary) all), 据 (according to), 具 (tool), 局 (narrow), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 惧 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 惧 and the traditional form is 懼.

Practice writing 惧 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.