King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “absorb”

吸收
xī shōu
to absorb; to assimilate; to ingest; to recruit

The closest CC-CEDICT match for absorb is 吸收 (xī shōu), defined as: to absorb; to assimilate; to ingest; to recruit.

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

吸 xī
to inhale, to suck in; to absorb; to attract
radical 30 ⼝ · 6 strokes
收 shōu
to collect, to gather, to harvest
radical 66 ⽁ · 6 strokes

Other Chinese words for “absorb”

WordPinyinMeaning
吸取xī qǔto absorb; to draw (a lesson, insight etc)
摄取 (攝取)shè qǔto absorb (nutrients etc); to assimilate
摄 (攝)shè(bound form) to take in; to absorb; to assimilate; to capture (video or still images)
吃chīto eat; to consume; to eat at (a cafeteria etc)
汲取jí qǔto draw; to derive; to absorb

Related words

Other words that share a character with 吸收.

WordPinyinMeaning
吸引xī yǐnto attract; to appeal to; to fascinate
呼吸hū xīto breathe
吸引力xī yǐn lìattractive force (such as gravitation); sex appeal
吸烟 (吸煙)xī yānto smoke
吸血鬼xī xuè guǐleech; bloodsucking vermin
收入shōu rùto take in; income
收到shōu dàoto receive
收集shōu jíto gather; to collect

See also: Japanese symbol for “absorb”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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