The open-charm strong decays of higher charmonium states up to the mass of the $6P$ multiplet are systematically studied in the $^3P_0$ model. The wave functions of the initial charmonium states are calculated in the linear potential (LP) and screened potential (SP) quark model. The decay widths for most of the well-established charmonium states above the open-charm thresholds can be reasonably described. By comparing our quark model calculations with the experimental observations we also discuss the nature of some of the newly observed charmonium-like states. It is found that (i) the $psi(4415)$ may favor the $psi(4S)$ or $psi_1(3D)$ assignment. There may exist two highly overlapping vector charmonium states around 4.4 GeV; (ii) In the LP model the $J^{PC}=1^{--}$ $Y(4660)$ resonance and the $J^{PC}=0^{++}$ $X(4500)$ resonance may be assigned as the $psi(5S)$ and $chi_{c0}(4P)$, respectively; (iii) The newly observed state $X^*(3860)$ can be assigned as the $chi_{c0}(2P)$ state with a narrow width of about $30$ MeV; (iv) It seems to be difficult to accommodate the $X(4140)$ and $X(4274)$ states in the same potential model as excited $chi_{c1}$ states. (v) The $X(3940)$ resonance can be assigned as the $eta_c(3S)$ state; (vi) The vector charmonium-like states $Y(4230/4260,4360)$ and scalar $X(4700)$ cannot be described by any conventional charmonium states self-consistently in our model.
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