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

HSK 3

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.

HSK 7-9

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.

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.