举 (jǔ): to lift, to hold up, to cite, to enumerate, to act, to raise

举 (jǔ) is a Chinese character meaning “to lift.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 兴 (structural) and 扌 (semantic). It ranks #586 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 举 hand. Its radical form 丶 (dot) appears in many related characters such as 为 (wéi, as (in the capacity of)), 主 (zhǔ, owner), 义 (yì, (Tw) Italy (abbr. for 義大利|义大利)).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to lift
  2. to hold up
  3. to cite
  4. to enumerate
  5. to act
  6. to raise

Etymology & Origin

举

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿱兴扌 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 举

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
举行verbjǔ xíngto hold (a meeting, ceremony etc)4
举办verbjǔ bànto conduct4
举动nounjǔ dòngact6
举例verbjǔ lìto give an example4

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
选举verbxuǎn jǔto elect
举手verbjǔ shǒuto raise a hand
举止nounjǔ zhǐbearing
举起verbjǔ qǐto heave
举报verbjǔ bàoto report (malefactors to the police)
轻而易举phraseqīng ér yì jǔeasy
一举一动yī jǔ yī dòng(idiom) every movement
托举tuō jǔto lift and support
举杯verbjǔ bēito toast sb (with wine etc)
轻举妄动phraseqīng jǔ wàng dòngto act blindly without thinking (idiom)
检举verbjiǎn jǔto report (an offense to the authorities)
一举nounyī jǔa move
抬举verbtái juto lift sth up
明智之举míng zhì zhī jǔsensible act
壮举nounzhuàng jǔmagnificent feat
100
Total compounds
42
As first character
45
As last character
13
As middle character

举 appears in 100 compound words: 42 as the first character, 45 as the last, and 13 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 举 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

办bàn
0.60774,224 co-occurrences
选xuǎn
0.604110,360 co-occurrences
行xíng
0.473132,781 co-occurrences
挺tǐng
0.4723,050 co-occurrences
荐jiàn
0.4612,304 co-occurrences
抓zhuā
0.4372,934 co-occurrences
措cuò
0.4364,099 co-occurrences
议yì
0.42813,064 co-occurrences
会huì
0.42628,660 co-occurrences
刊kān
0.4115,772 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (32)

百端待举bǎiduān dàijǔHSK 6+

much remains to be done; numerous tasks remain to be undertaken

phrase
百废待举bǎifèidàijǔHSK 7+

synonym of 百廢待興 /百废待兴 (bǎifèidàixīng, “many abandoned or neglected tasks or projects are waiting to be undertaken”)

phrase
被选举权bèixuǎnjǔquánHSK 5+

right to be elected

noun
不可枚举bù kě méi jǔHSK 7+

innumerable (idiom)

phrase
不胜枚举bùshèngméijǔHSK 7+

too numerous to mention individually (or one by one)

phrase
不识抬举bùshítáijuHSK 4+

to fail to appreciate somebody's kindness; to be unable to appreciate favors; to not recognize a favor

phrase
差额选举chā'é xuǎnjǔHSK 6+

competitive election

noun
多此一举duōcǐyījǔHSK 4+

an extraneous move; a useless action

phrase
高举远蹈gāo jǔ yuǎn dǎoHSK 5+

to leave office for a high and distant place (idiom); to retire and place oneself above the fray

phrase
共襄盛举gòngxiāngshèngjǔ

to assist one another in preparation for a grand occasion; to work together to complete a project

phrase
间接选举jiànjiē xuǎnjǔHSK 4+

indirect election

noun
举案齐眉jǔ'ànqíméiHSK 6+

to have mutual respect between husband and wife

phrase

Showing 12 of 32 idioms containing 举.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他举起手来,示意自己有话要说。

Tā jǔ qǐ shǒu lái, shìyì zìjǐ yǒu huà yào shuō.

He raised his hand to signal that he had something to say.

中国新闻网_梳理天下新闻Feb 2026

...交大臣:美伊下一轮谈判将于26日在日内瓦举行

. . . jiāo dà chén : měi yī xià yī lún tán pàn jiāng yú 2 6 rì zài rì nèi wǎ jǔ háng

... Minister: The next round of negotiations between the United States and Iran will be held in Geneva on the 26th

百度新闻Feb 2026

中外交流|塞尔维亚举行系列新春庙会活动庆祝中国年

zhōng wài jiāo liú sāi ěr wéi yà jǔ háng xì liè xīn chūn miào huì huó dòng qìng zhù zhōng guó nián

Sino-Foreign Exchange|Serbia celebrates Chinese New Year with a series of Lunar New Year temple festivals

百度新闻Feb 2026

首次举办新春市集,大学路迎来“最热闹的春节”

shǒu cì jǔ bàn xīn chūn shì jí , dà xué lù yíng lái zuì rè nào de chūn jié

The first ever Lunar New Year's Market, "The Most Bustling Chinese New Year" on University Avenue.

百度新闻Feb 2026

俄罗斯莫斯科地铁举行中国春节主题列车发车仪式

é luó sī mò sī kē dì tiě jǔ háng zhōng guó chūn jié zhǔ tí liè chē fā chē yí shì

Chinese New Year-themed train launch ceremony held in Russia's Moscow Metro

百度新闻Feb 2026

...��第二轮间接谈判17日在瑞士日内瓦开始举行

. . . dì èr lún jiān jiē tán pàn rì zài ruì shì rì nèi wǎ kāi shǐ jǔ háng

... Second round of indirect talks begins in Geneva, Switzerland on 17th

Tatoeba

你能举起这块石头吗?

Nǐ néng jǔqǐ zhè kuài shítou ma?

Can you lift this stone?

Tatoeba

可以举几个例子吗?

Kěyǐ jǔ jǐge lìzi ma?

Please give us some examples.

Tatoeba

他有机会赢得选举吗?

Tā yǒu jīhuì yíngdé xuǎnjǔ ma?

Does he have a chance in winning the election?

Tatoeba

你为什么不举行派对?

Nǐ wèishénme bù jǔxíng pàiduì?

Why don't you have a party?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced jǔ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 举 (jǔ) mean in Chinese?
举 (jǔ) primarily means "to lift." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #586 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 举 and 下?
举 (jǔ) and 下 (xià) are often confused. antonym. The key distinguishing feature: 举 (up) vs 下 (down).
How many strokes does 举 have?
举 is written with 9 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 举?
The radical associated with 举 is 丶 (dot). This radical appears in many characters related to dot.
What are the components of 举?
举 is composed of: 兴 (structural), 扌 (semantic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱兴扌 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 举?
Common words with 举 include: 举行 (jǔ xíng, "to hold (a meeting, ceremony etc)"); 选举 (xuǎn jǔ, "to elect"); 举办 (jǔ bàn, "to conduct"); 举动 (jǔ dòng, "act"); 举手 (jǔ shǒu, "to raise a hand"). There are over 100 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 举 (jǔ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation jǔ: 据 (according to), 具 (tool), 局 (narrow), 居 (to reside), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 举 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 举 and the traditional form is 擧.

Practice writing 举 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.