疾 (jí) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

疾

jí[ji2]Tone 2

disease, ailment, swift, to hate

HSK 6

Guru Deep Dive

English · disease, ailment, swift, to hate

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Topology:Semi-enclosure

Strokes:10

Writing Balance Rule: The outer sickness enclosure canopy must sweep wide and downward from the top-left, sheltering the internal arrow-like structure securely underneath.

1. Meaning

disease or illness

swift, rapidto hate or abhor intensely

Noun / Adjective / VerbLiteraryBound morpheme#health#medicine#emotions#speed

Sample Usage

疾苦
jíkǔ
suffering and hardship of the people
疾走
jízǒu
to walk swiftly, to dash

2. Sound

/[t͡ɕi³⁵]/Tone: 35

疾

jíji2

´(35)

=jí

Initial Consonant

Type: Unaspirated Alveolo-Palatal

Sounds like: j sound as in jeep

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: No air puff. Lips spread wide like smiling.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Blade of tongue flat against the hard palate, releasing gently.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -i vowel group

Sounds like: ee sound as in see

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ee'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T2 (35)

3 → 5 (35)

2nd Tone (Mid-Rising)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 2 rises from medium to high pitch, identical to the inflection used when asking 'Huh?' or expressing surprise in English.

👂

Listening trap: Do not mistake it for the fourth-tone variant or confuse the unaspirated initial with an aspirated 'q'.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A rising hand gesture starting from a neutral level and sweeping sharply upward, matching the interrogative English 'What?' tone.

3. Writing

Topology: Semi-enclosure · Strokes: 10 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The outer sickness enclosure canopy must sweep wide and downward from the top-left, sheltering the internal arrow-like structure securely underneath.

4. Components

Radical 疒 · Sickness Radical (illness, bed, hospital)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 疒 (indicates disease or medical condition)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 矢 (original sound: shǐ)

A sick person confined to a bed (疒) who feels a pain shooting through them as fast as an arrow (矢).

疒 illness enclosure
矢 arrow (providing phonetic hint and speed connotation)

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

6· Phonetic Root: 矢 (shǐ)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally combined the sickness enclosure (疒) representing a bedridden patient with an arrow (矢) to denote a sudden, piercing ailment striking like a flying projectile.

Semantic Evolution: Expanded from acute physical disease and pain to mean 'rapid/swift' (like a speeding arrow) and 'to hate' (a piercing, painful emotion).

In classical Chinese medical texts, 疾 denoted acute short-term illnesses, whereas 病 (bìng) denoted chronic or severe diseases.

6. Sinosphere

🇻🇳

Sino-Vietnamese

tật

Corresponds to the Vietnamese heavy tone (nặng) or checked tone equivalents.

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: シツ (shitsu) / Kun: はや.い (hayai), Yamai

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

질

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Imagine an archer shot by a poisoned arrow (矢) while lying in bed (疒). The swift (疾) disease spreads instantly, making him hate (疾) the attacker with a burning passion.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

疾

jídisease, swiftBase character with arrow component

嫉

jíjealousyAdded woman component (女) for jealousy of the heart

痼

gùchronic illnessAdded solid/old component (固)

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

病(bìng)

病 uses the general sickness radical with a phonetic meaning 'to lean/contain', usually denoting generalized illness, whereas 疾 uses 矢 (arrow) for acute or sudden conditions.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

我们要关心人民群众的生老病___。

Clue: jí

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing 疾 (jí) with 病 (bìng) in modern compounds, or writing the inner 矢 component incorrectly inside the 疒 enclosure.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: What does the character 疾 mean when combined with 苦 in '疾苦'?

Production: How do you write the literary word for 'swift/disease' containing the sickness radical and arrow?

疾jídisease, ailment, swift, to hate

Speed:

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