HSK 5 · Adjectives
谨慎 jǐnshèn “cautious” in Chinese
Traditional 謹慎
What 谨慎 means
- cautious
- prudent
How to say 谨慎
谨jǐn3rd tone, dipping
慎shèn4th tone, falling
谨慎 in a sentence
How 谨慎 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.

谨jǐncautious
- 讠speech form of 言 · yánMeaning part
- 堇yellow loam · jǐnSound part
讠 hints at the meaning (speech); 堇 (jǐn) hints at the sound. Compare it with jǐn.

慎shèncareful
- 忄heart form of 心 · xīnMeaning part
- 真real · zhēnSound part
忄 hints at the meaning (heart); 真 (zhēn) hints at the sound. Compare it with shèn.
How to write 谨慎
谨 13 strokes · 慎 13 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 谨慎
Words with 慎
More words: Adjectives
FAQs
谨慎 (jǐnshèn) means “cautious” or “prudent”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it jǐnshèn: jǐn with a 3rd tone, then shèn 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, 谨慎 is written 謹慎. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type jinshen with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 谨慎 from the suggestions. Typing jinshen into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
谨慎 is an HSK 5 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.