沮 (jǔ): to destroy, to stop

沮 (jǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “to destroy.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 且 (phonetic). It ranks #2680 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 沮 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to destroy
  2. to stop

Etymology & Origin

沮

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵且 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
沮丧adjectivejǔ sàngdispirited
1
Total compounds
100
As first character
0
As last character
0
As middle character

沮 appears in 1 compound words: 100 as the first character, 0 as the last, and 0 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 沮 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

丧sāng
0.7032,217 co-occurrences
渠qú
0.6321,400 co-occurrences
逊xùn
0.482328 co-occurrences
感gǎn
0.4631,472 co-occurrences
愤fèn
0.45347 co-occurrences
讳huì
0.44964 co-occurrences
沃wò
0.410344 co-occurrences
蒙méng
0.404528 co-occurrences
牧mù
0.385196 co-occurrences
怒nù
0.37983 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

孩子们喜欢在清澈的沮边玩耍,捉小鱼小虾。

hái zǐ men xǐ huān zài qīng 澈 de jǔ biān wán shuǎ , zhuō xiǎo yú xiǎo xiā .

Children love to play by the clear riverbank, catching little fish and shrimp.

IT之家Aug 2026

一名用户引用他的帖子,称看到他用 AI 开发游戏“令人沮丧”。

yī míng yòng hù yǐn yòng tā de tiē zǐ , chèn kàn dào tā yòng A I kāi fā yóu xì lìng rén jǔ sāng .

A user quoted his post, saying that seeing him use AI to develop games was “frustrating.”

中国新闻网·文化Aug 2026

短暂的沮丧过后,他们回到实验室继续试,设法拿下“冻融”这只拦路虎。

duǎn zàn de jǔ sāng guò hòu , tā men huí dào shí yàn shì jì xù shì , shè fǎ ná xià dòng róng zhè zhī lán lù hǔ .

After a brief bout of discouragement, they returned to the lab to keep trying, determined to overcome the hurdle of “freeze-thaw.”

三立新聞網Apr 2026

先别沮丧!外媒三面向分析 金价未来走势

xiān bié jǔ sāng ! wài méi sān miàn xiàng fēn xī jīn jià wèi lái zǒu shì

Don’t get discouraged just yet! Foreign media analyze the future trend of gold prices from three perspectives

Yahoo FinanceMar 2026

全美机场安检口大排长龙 愤怒与沮丧交织的旅客自嘲“好比牛群”

quán měi jī chǎng ān jiǎn kǒu dà pái cháng lóng fèn nù yǔ jǔ sāng jiāo zhī de lǚ kè zì cháo hǎo bǐ niú qún

Long lines at airport security checkpoints across the U.S. have left travelers feeling a mix of anger and frustration, with some joking that they feel "like a herd of cattle."

News For ChineseFeb 2026

博彩新规令SJ卡牌室和市府沮丧

bó cǎi xīn guī lìng S J kǎ pái shì hé shì fǔ jǔ sāng

The new gaming regulations have frustrated SJ card rooms and the city government

Tatoeba

我为小事情觉得沮丧。

Wǒ wèi xiǎoshì qíng juéde jǔsàng.

I get depressed by the slightest things.

Tatoeba

某天晚上,他又累又沮丧地回到了家。

Mǒu tiān wǎnshang, tā yòu lèi yòu jǔsàng de huídào le jiā.

One night he came home very tired and sad.

Tatoeba

当我发现我没通过测验时我实在是太沮丧了。

Dāng wǒ fāxiàn wǒ méi tōngguò cèyàn shí wǒ shízài shì tài jǔsàng le.

I was really disappointed when I found out that I hadn't passed the exam.

Tatoeba

这让我感到沮丧。

Zhè ràng wǒ gǎndào jǔsàng.

It makes me feel sad.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced jǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 沮 (jǔ) mean in Chinese?
沮 (jǔ) primarily means "to destroy." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2680 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 沮 and 组?
沮 (jǔ) and 组 (zǔ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 氵 vs 纟 (same 且 component).
How many strokes does 沮 have?
沮 is written with 8 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 沮?
The radical associated with 沮 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 沮?
沮 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 且 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵且 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 沮?
Common words with 沮 include: 沮丧 (jǔ sàng, "dispirited"). There are over 1 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 沮 (jǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jǔ: 咀 (to chew), 据 (according to), 具 (tool), 局 (narrow). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 沮 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 沮 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 沮 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.