急 (jí): urgent

Meanings

1 urgent
2 anxious
3 worried

Characters

急

jí

anxious; urgent; hurried

Examples

别急，慢慢来。

Bié jí, mànmàn lái.

Don't worry, take your time.

我很急，马上要开会。

Wǒ hěn jí, mǎshàng yào kāihuì.

I'm in a hurry, the meeting is about to start.

他急得不知道怎么办。

Tā jí de bù zhīdào zěnme bàn.

He was so anxious he didn't know what to do.

Tips

usage

别急 (don't worry/don't rush) is a very common reassuring phrase.

grammar

急 can describe the person (我很急) or the situation (很急的事).

Components

radical

心 xīn

heart; mind

Bottom heart radical — the indexing radical. Urgency, anxiety, and impatience are heart-states in classical Chinese psychology. The full 心 form sits beneath the phonetic here, contrasting with the left-side variant 忄 used in 慢, 怕, 快. Same family: 思, 想, 念, 怒, 忍.

phonetic

刍 chú

(here a corrupted form of 及 'reach')

Top component is a corruption of 及 (jí, to reach/catch up) — supplies the sound jí → jí, no shift. Originally depicted a hand grasping forward, fitting the urgency meaning: a heart racing to catch up. Visually overlaps with 刍 (chú, fodder) but the phonetic origin is from 及.