棘 jí
- Strokes
- 12
- Radical
- 木 — tree
- Made of
- 朿 thorn, sting, prickle 朿 thorn, sting, prickle
- How it's built
- Phono-semantic — one part hints at the meaning, another at the sound
棘手
jíshǒu
thorny; troublesome; difficult to handle
Characters in this word
手 shǒu
- Strokes
- 4
- Radical
- 手 — hand
- How it's built
- Pictograph — a drawing of the thing
Example phrases
- 这起跨境纠纷极为棘手，因为涉及多个司法管辖区。 Zhè qǐ kuàjìng jiūfēn jíwéi jíshǒu, yīnwèi shèjí duō ge sīfǎ guǎnxiáqū. This cross-border dispute is extremely thorny because it involves multiple jurisdictions.
- 公司遇到了一个棘手的问题，大家开了一晚上的会。 Gōngsī yùdào le yí ge jíshǒu de wèntí, dàjiā kāi le yì wǎnshang de huì. The company ran into a tricky problem, and everyone held a meeting all evening.
- 孩子不肯吃饭，这让妈妈觉得很棘手。 Háizi bù kěn chīfàn, zhè ràng māma juéde hěn jíshǒu. The child refused to eat, which the mother found hard to deal with.