职 (zhí): job, duty

职 (zhí) is a Chinese character meaning “job, duty.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 耳 (semantic) and 只 (phonetic). It ranks #616 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 职 ear. Its radical form 耳 (ear) appears in many related characters such as 闻 (wén, to hear, to smell), 联 (lián, connect, unite), 耳 (ěr, ear).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. job, duty

Etymology & Origin

职

pictophoneticear

Decomposition: ⿰耳只 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 职

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
职业nounzhí yèoccupation4
辞职verbcí zhíto resign5
职责nounzhí zéduty6
职位nounzhí wèiposition6
职员nounzhí yuánoffice worker6
兼职verb/nounjiān zhíto hold concurrent posts6
职务nounzhí wùpost6
离职verblí zhíto leave one's job temporarily (e.g. for study)5
职工nounzhí gōngemployee5
职场nounzhí chǎngworkplace5
求职verbqiú zhíto seek employment6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
称职adjectivechèn zhíwell qualified
停职verbtíng zhíto suspend (sb) from duties
就职verbjiù zhíto take office
复职verbfù zhíto resume a post
职权nounzhí quánauthority
任职verbrèn zhíto hold a post
尽职verbjìn zhíto discharge one's duties
玩忽职守phrasewán hū zhí shǒuto neglect one's duty
失职verbshī zhíto neglect one's duty
殉职verbxùn zhíto die in the line of duty
职守nounzhí shǒuduty
专职adjectivezhuān zhíspecial duty
渎职verbdú zhíto engage in malfeasance
文职nounwén zhícivilian post (as opposed to military)
在职verbzài zhíto be employed
101
Total compounds
24
As first character
62
As last character
14
As middle character

职 appears in 101 compound words: 24 as the first character, 62 as the last, and 14 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 职 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

业yè
0.655107,356 co-occurrences
辞cí
0.61823,498 co-occurrences
务wù
0.60259,278 co-occurrences
责zé
0.52116,204 co-occurrences
涯yá
0.52020,194 co-occurrences
滥làn
0.4691,444 co-occurrences
任rèn
0.44448,668 co-occurrences
员yuán
0.44238,150 co-occurrences
履lǚ
0.4271,706 co-occurrences
篮lán
0.4231,860 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (9)

第二职业dì èr zhí yèHSK 4+

second job

phrase
公职人员gōngzhí rényuánHSK 4+

civil servant; government employee; public official

noun
留职停薪liú zhí tíng xīnHSK 6+

(Tw) leave of absence without pay

phrase
擅离职守shàn lí zhí shǒuHSK 5+

to abscond; to be absent without leave

phrase
玩忽职守wánhū zhíshǒuHSK 5+

to neglect one's duty; to engage in misconduct in public office

phrase
有亏职守yǒu kuī zhí shǒuHSK 5+

(to be guilty of) dereliction of duty

phrase
职能治疗zhínéng zhìliáoHSK 5+

occupational therapy

noun
自由职业zìyóu zhíyèHSK 4+

freelance profession; self-employment

noun
引咎辞职yǐn jiù cí zhíHSK 5+

to admit responsibility and resign

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

他的职业是医生,每天都很忙碌。

Tā de zhíyè shì yīshēng, měitiān dōu hěn mánglù.

His profession is a doctor; he is very busy every day.

百度新闻Feb 2026

...我的家·新春走基层丨湖南裕能:600余名职..

. . . wǒ de jiā xīn chūn zǒu jī céng 丨 hú nán yù néng : 6 0 0 yú míng zhí . .

... My Home, New Year to the grassroots丨Hunan Yuneng: more than 600 positions:

百度新闻Feb 2026

2025年收获满满,山东信息职业技术学院向合作单位..

nián shōu huò mǎn mǎn , shān dōng xìn xī zhí yè jì shù xué yuàn xiàng gě zuò shàn wèi . .

2025: A Year of Abundant Harvests Shandong Information Vocational College extends its gratitude to partner institutions...

百度新闻Feb 2026

「春节在岗职工电台」敬你的坚守,敬你的努力!

chūn jié zài gāng zhí gōng diàn tái jìng nǐ de jiān shǒu , jìng nǐ de nǔ lì !

"Spring Festival On-Duty Workers Radio" To your dedication, to your hard work!

百度新闻Feb 2026

...移民政策支持率创新低 国土安全部发言人离职

. . . yí mín zhèng cè zhī chí lǜ chuàng xīn dī guó tǔ ān quán bù fā yán rén chī zhí

Support for immigration policies hits record low as Homeland Security spokesperson resigns

百度新闻Feb 2026

...杉矶奥组委主席涉爱泼斯坦案,市长呼吁其辞职

. . . 杉 矶 ào zǔ wěi zhǔ xí shè ài pō sī tǎn àn , shì cháng hū xū qí cí zhí

Los Angeles Olympic Bid Committee Chairman Implicated in Epstein Case; Mayor Calls for His Resignation

Tatoeba

她决心要辞职离开公司。

Tā juéxīn yào cízhí líkāi gōngsī.

She is determined to leave the company.

Tatoeba

与其让我在他手下干,我宁愿辞职。

Yǔqí ràng wǒ zài tā shǒuxià gàn, wǒ nìngyuàn cízhí.

I would rather quit than work under him.

Tatoeba

他们要求市长辞职。

Tāmen yāoqiú shìzhǎng cízhí.

They requested the mayor to resign.

Tatoeba

让我们非常惊讶的是,他突然辞职了。

Ràng wǒmen fēicháng jīngyà de shì, tā tūrán cízhí le.

What shocked us greatly was his sudden resignation.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 耳 (ear) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced zhí

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 职 (zhí) mean in Chinese?
职 (zhí) primarily means "job, duty." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #616 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 职 and 识?
职 (zhí) and 识 (shí) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 耳 vs 讠 (same 只 component).
How many strokes does 职 have?
职 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 职?
The radical associated with 职 is 耳 (ear). This radical appears in many characters related to ear.
What are the components of 职?
职 is composed of: 耳 (semantic), 只 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰耳只 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 职?
Common words with 职 include: 职业 (zhí yè, "occupation"); 辞职 (cí zhí, "to resign"); 职责 (zhí zé, "duty"); 职位 (zhí wèi, "position"); 职员 (zhí yuán, "office worker"). There are over 101 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 职 (zhí)?
Several characters share the pronunciation zhí: 只 (classifier for birds and certain animals, one of a pair, some utensils, vessels etc), 知 (to know), 直 (Zhi (c. 2000 BC), fifth of the legendary Flame Emperors 炎帝 descended from Shennong 神農|神农 Farmer God), 指 (finger, point), and 1 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 职 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 职 and the traditional form is 職.

Practice writing 职 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.