HSK 4 · Work

职业 zhíyè “occupation” in Chinese

Traditional 職業

What 职业 means

  1. occupation
  2. profession
  3. vocation
  4. professional

How to say 职业

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale职zhí2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the fourth tone: falls from high to low, 5 to 1 on the five-level scale业yè4th tone, falling

职业 in a sentence

  1. 他的职业是医生。

    Tā de zhíyè shì yīshēng.

    He’s a doctor by profession.

    Sentence #347089 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 教书是我自己选择的职业。

    Jiāoshū shì wǒ zìjǐ xuǎnzé de zhíyè.

    Teaching is a profession of my own choosing.

    Sentence #2031260 from Tatoeba

  3. 我一直想成为一名职业篮球运动员。

    Wǒ yìzhí xiǎng chéngwéi yì míng zhíyè lánqiú yùndòngyuán.

    I’ve always wanted to be a professional basketball player.

    Sentence #8463537 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 职业 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 职 (zhí) with each of its parts in a different colour
职zhíoffice
  • 耳ear · ěrMeaning part
  • 只only · zhǐSound part

耳 hints at the meaning (ear); 只 (zhǐ) hints at the sound. Compare it with zhí.

The character 业 (yè) drawn as one shape
业yèline of business

业 is a single shape of 5 strokes. Learn it whole, then watch its stroke order below.

How to write 职业

职 11 strokes · 业 5 strokes

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

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

Words related to 职业

Words with 职

辞职cízhí · to resign兼职jiānzhí · part-time job就职jiùzhí · to take office职能zhínéng · function职位zhíwèi · position职务zhíwù · post

Words with 业

作业zuòyè · school assignment毕业bìyè · graduation专业zhuānyè · major (at university)业余yèyú · spare-time工业gōngyè · industry农业nóngyè · agriculture企业qǐyè · company商业shāngyè · business失业shīyè · unemployment行业hángyè · trade

More words: School, Work & Culture

现金xiànjīn · cash演员yǎnyuán · actor or actress应聘yìngpìn · to apply for a job招聘zhāopìn · to invite applications for a job作家zuòjiā · writer表演biǎoyǎn · to perform法律fǎlǜ · law功夫gōngfu · time and effort

FAQs

职业 (zhíyè) means “occupation” or “profession”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it zhíyè: zhí with a 2nd tone, then yè 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, 职业 is written 職業. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type zhiye with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 职业 from the suggestions. Typing zhiye into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
职业 is an HSK 4 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.