HSK 6 · Adjectives

恭敬 gōngjìng “respectful” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 恭敬 means

  1. respectful
  2. deferential

How to say 恭敬

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale恭gōng1st tone, high and level
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale敬jìng4th tone, falling

恭敬 in a sentence

  1. 没有人向他恭敬地鞠躬。

    Méiyǒu rén xiàng tā gōngjìng de jūgōng.

    No one bowed to him respectfully.

    Sentence #461502 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 恭敬不如从命 is a set phrase for politely accepting an offer

    那我就恭敬不如从命啦。

    Nà wǒ jiù gōngjìng bùrú cóngmìng la.

    In that case, I’ll gladly accept.

    Sentence #756898 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 恭敬 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.

The character 恭 (gōng) with each of its parts in a different colour
恭gōngrespectful
  • 共all · gòngSound part
  • ⺗heart form of 心 · xīnMeaning part

⺗ hints at the meaning (heart); 共 (gòng) hints at the sound. Compare it with gōng.

The character 敬 (jìng) with each of its parts in a different colour
敬jìngrespectful; to respect
  • 苟part of the character
  • 攵tap form of 攴 · pū

How to write 恭敬

恭 10 strokes · 敬 12 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

恭敬 (gōngjìng) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 恭敬 (gōngjìng). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 恭敬

Words with 恭

恭喜gōngxǐ · congratulations

Words with 敬

尊敬zūnjìng · to respect敬礼jìnglǐ · to salute崇敬chóngjìng · to revere敬业jìngyè · dedication to one’s work

More words: Adjectives

高明gāomíng · brilliant高尚gāoshàng · noble根深蒂固gēnshēndìgù · deep-rooted公道gōngdao · fair公正gōngzhèng · fair广阔guǎngkuò · vast古怪gǔguài · strange孤立gūlì · isolated

FAQs

恭敬 (gōngjìng) means “respectful” or “deferential”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it gōngjìng: gōng with a 1st tone, then jìng with a 4th tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 恭敬 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type gongjing with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 恭敬 from the suggestions. Typing gongjing into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
恭敬 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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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.