己 (jǐ) is a Chinese character meaning “oneself”. It is written from ㇕ and 一 (one) and ㇘, and takes 3 strokes.
Build the character for “oneself”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
㇕ + 一 + ㇘
Top–middle–bottom structure
Structure from: Unicode U+5DF1 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 three-stroke modern glyph inspection
Memory aid
A corner (㇕) turns down from the top, a bar (一) crosses the middle, and the long hook (㇘) sweeps out under it all — an open frame with nothing inside but you.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
3 strokes
In real words
- 自己zì jǐoneself; one's own己 = jǐHSK 1
- 知己zhī jǐa close friend who truly understands you己 = jǐ
Go deeper
All readings
oneself
oneself; one's own; also the sixth of the ten Heavenly Stems
自身、自己；也是天干的第六位。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 自己zì jǐoneself; one's own己 = jǐHSK 1
- 知己zhī jǐa close friend who truly understands you己 = jǐ
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 己 mean?
己 (jǐ) means oneself; one's own; also the sixth of the ten Heavenly Stems.
How do you pronounce 己?
It is pronounced jǐ.
What parts is 己 made of?
㇕ and 一 (one) and ㇘. The recorded source is: Unicode U+5DF1 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 three-stroke modern glyph inspection. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 己 have?
3. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 己?
己. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 己?
Common ones are 自己 and 知己. The reading of 己 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.