HSK 6 · Verbs
激励 jīlì “to encourage” in Chinese
Traditional 激勵
What 激励 means
- to encourage
- to motivate
- incentive
- to urge
- motivation
How to say 激励
激jī1st tone, high and level
励lì4th tone, falling
激励 in a sentence
How 激励 is built
Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

激jīto arouse
- 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
- 敫ancient musical instrument · jiǎoSound part
氵 hints at the meaning (water); 敫 (jiǎo) hints at the sound. Compare it with jī.

励lìto encourage
- 厉whetstone · lìSound part
- 力strength · lìMeaning part
力 hints at the meaning (strength); 厉 (lì) hints at the sound. Compare it with lì.
How to write 激励
激 16 strokes · 励 7 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

Words related to 激励
Words with 激
激动jīdòng · excited刺激cìjī · to stimulate激烈jīliè · (of competition or fighting) intense感激gǎnjī · to be grateful冰激凌bīngjīlíng · ice cream激发jīfā · to arouse激情jīqíng · passion
Words with 励
More words: Thinking & Talking
FAQs
激励 (jīlì) means “to encourage” or “to motivate”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it jīlì: jī with a 1st tone, then lì with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 激励 is written 激勵. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type jili with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 激励 from the suggestions. Typing jili into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
激励 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.
Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.