King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “actor”

演员
yǎn yuán
Traditional: 演員
actor; actress; performer

The closest CC-CEDICT match for actor is 演员 (yǎn yuán), defined as: actor; actress; performer.

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

演 yǎn
to perform, to act, to put on a play
radical 85 ⽔ · 14 strokes
员 yuán
employee; member; personnel, staff
radical 30 ⼝ · 7 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “actor”

WordPinyinMeaning
戏子 (戲子)xì zi(derog.) Chinese opera performer; (derog.) actor
伶líng(old) actor; actress; (meaningless bound form)
优伶 (優伶)yōu líng(old) performing artist; actor
伶人líng rén(old) actor; actress

Related words

Other words that share a character with 演员.

WordPinyinMeaning
表演biǎo yǎnplay; show
导演 (導演)dǎo yǎnto direct; director (film etc)
演出yǎn chūto act (in a play); to perform
演讲 (演講)yǎn jiǎngto give a lecture; to make a speech
扮演bàn yǎnto play the role of; to act
委员会 (委員會)wěi yuán huìcommittee; commission
人员 (人員)rén yuánstaff; crew
成员 (成員)chéng yuánmember

See also: Japanese symbol for “actor”.

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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