囧 (jiǒng): embarrassed

Meanings

1 embarrassed
2 awkward
3 in a difficult or helpless situation

Characters

囧

jiǒng

embarrassed / awkward (internet slang; originally meant 'bright')

Examples

我在大庭广众下摔倒了，真的好囧。

Wǒ zài dàtíngguǎngzhòng xià shuāidǎo le, zhēnde hǎo jiǒng.

I fell down in front of everyone - it was so embarrassing.

发现发错消息给老板，他感到非常囧。

Fāxiàn fā cuò xiāoxi gěi lǎobǎn, tā gǎndào fēicháng jiǒng.

He found he had sent the wrong message to his boss and felt utterly mortified.

Tips

history

囧 (jiǒng) is an ancient character meaning 'bright / shining', but around 2005 it became internet slang because the character's shape resembles a sad or distressed face: the rectangular outline is a face, 八 at the top are eyebrows/eyes, and 口 at the bottom is a mouth. This visual pun gave it entirely new meaning in Chinese netspeak.

Components

pictograph

囧 jiǒng

lattice window letting in light

Single irreducible pictograph: outer square is a window frame, inner marks are cross-bars of a lattice catching light. Original meaning: bright, full of streaming light. In the late 2000s Chinese internet seized on it because the shape resembles a downcast face - now an emoticon for awkward, helpless.

No stroke data for 囧; the glyph shown is your device font, so component strokes can't be highlighted.