to prohibit; to ban
HSK level
禁止 is written with 17 strokes (禁: 13, 止: 4). The animation replays automatically.
禁止 (jìnzhǐ) is a formal verb meaning 'to prohibit,' 'to forbid,' or 'to ban.'
It describes an authority — a government, an institution, or a rule — forbidding an action, and it carries the weight of official enforcement. You see it constantly on public signage: 禁止吸烟 (no smoking), 禁止停车 (no parking), 禁止入内 (no entry). Unlike English 'forbid,' which can be personal ('my parents forbid me'), 禁止 sounds too heavy for family or casual contexts; Chinese speakers use 不许 or 不让 there instead.
The object of 禁止 is usually an action or activity, not a person: you say 禁止拍照 (prohibit photography), not 禁止某人. Its opposite is 允许 (yǔnxǔ, to permit). Because of its officialdom, 禁止 also frequently appears in written notices and legal or administrative documents.
Note: Institutional and official in tone. 禁止 appears on signs, in regulations, and in laws — it is the word an authority uses to forbid something. In everyday speech telling a friend not to do something, 别 or 不要 is far more natural.
Character by character
Memory hook: 禁 (prohibit) + 止 (stop) — an order to stop; something is banned.
这里禁止吸烟。
Zhèlǐ jìnzhǐ xīyān.
Smoking is prohibited here.
neutral
图书馆禁止大声说话。
Túshūguǎn jìnzhǐ dàshēng shuōhuà.
Talking loudly is forbidden in the library.
neutral
公司严格禁止员工迟到。
Gōngsī yángé jìnzhǐ yuángōng chídào.
The company strictly prohibits employees from arriving late.
written
这条路禁止汽车通行。
Zhè tiáo lù jìnzhǐ qìchē tōngxíng.
This road is closed to cars.
formal
不许 means 'not allow' and is used in speech, including by parents and teachers to children. It is personal and spoken; 禁止 is official and written. A sign says 禁止吸烟; a mother says 不许抽烟.
严禁 ('strictly prohibit') is an even stronger, more formal variant used for serious rules — 严禁烟火 (strictly no fire). 禁止 is the neutral formal ban; 严禁 emphasizes severity.
阻止 means 'to stop / prevent' a specific act as it happens or is about to (阻止他离开, stop him from leaving). 禁止 sets a standing rule against an activity in general. 阻止 is physical intervention; 禁止 is a prohibition.
制止 means 'to check / put a stop to' ongoing bad behavior (制止暴力, put a stop to violence). Like 阻止 it targets a concrete situation, whereas 禁止 forbids by rule beforehand.
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