Chinese symbol for “alive”
活着
huó zhe
Traditional: 活著
alive
The closest CC-CEDICT match for alive is 活着 (huó zhe), defined as: alive.
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
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “alive”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 活 | huó | to live; alive |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 活着.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 活动 (活動) | huó dòng | to exercise; to move about; to work out; shaky; unsteady; loose (tooth etc) |
| 生活 | shēng huó | to live; life |
| 活跃 (活躍) | huó yuè | active; lively |
| 活力 | huó lì | energy; vitality |
| 灵活 (靈活) | líng huó | flexible; nimble |
| 随着 (隨著) | suí zhe | along with; in the wake of |
| 有着 (有著) | yǒu zhe | to have; to possess |
| 接着 (接著) | jiē zhe | to catch and hold on; to continue |
See also: Japanese symbol for “alive”.
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.