觉 (jué) is a Chinese character meaning “to feel”. It is written from ⺍ (three short top strokes (dot, dot, left-falling)) and 冖 (cover) and 见 (to see), and takes 9 strokes. It has a second reading, jiào, which turns up in 睡觉 — here the two readings are two separate things to learn, not one card with two answers.
Build the character for “to feel; to become aware”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
⺍ + 冖 + 见
Top–middle–bottom structure
- ⺍ three short top strokes (dot, dot, left-falling) unknown
- 冖 cover · mì unknown
- 见 to see · jiàn unknown
Structure from: Unicode U+89C9 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 nine-stroke modern glyph inspection (strokes 1-3 = ⺍, 4-5 = 冖, 6-9 = 见)
Memory aid
Three short strokes (⺍) flicker above a cover (冖), and under the cover you see (见) — something has just registered: 觉, to feel, to become aware.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
9 strokes
In real words
- 觉得jué deto feel; to think觉 = jué
- 感觉gǎn juéfeeling; to feel觉 = jué
- 觉悟jué wùto become aware; awareness; consciousness觉 = jué
Go deeper
All readings
to feel; to become aware
to feel; to sense; to become aware of; to wake up to; sense, feeling
感觉；觉察，意识到。也指感官的感受。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 觉得jué deto feel; to think觉 = jué
- 感觉gǎn juéfeeling; to feel觉 = jué
- 觉悟jué wùto become aware; awareness; consciousness觉 = jué
a sleep; a nap
sleep; a spell of sleep (as in 睡觉 "to sleep")
睡眠（从睡着到醒来）。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 睡觉shuì jiàoto sleep; to go to bed觉 = jiào
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 觉 mean?
觉 (jué) means to feel; to sense; to become aware of; to wake up to; sense, feeling.
How do you pronounce 觉?
Its main reading is jué. It also has a second reading, jiào, which only shows up in certain words such as 睡觉 — so the word tells you the reading, not the character on its own.
Why is 觉 sometimes pronounced jiào?
Because it is a multi-reading character: each reading carries a different sense, and the word decides which one applies. In 睡觉 it is read jiào.
What parts is 觉 made of?
⺍ (three short top strokes (dot, dot, left-falling)) and 冖 (cover) and 见 (to see). The recorded source is: Unicode U+89C9 and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 nine-stroke modern glyph inspection (strokes 1-3 = ⺍, 4-5 = 冖, 6-9 = 见). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 觉 have?
9. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 觉?
见. 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 觉?
Common ones are 觉得 and 感觉. The reading of 觉 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.