Chinese symbol for “benevolent”
慈善
cí shàn
benevolent; charitable
The closest CC-CEDICT match for benevolent is 慈善 (cí shàn), defined as: benevolent; charitable.
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
Other Chinese words for “benevolent”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 仁慈 | rén cí | benevolent; charitable |
| 善 | shàn | good (virtuous); benevolent |
| 仁惠 | rén huì | benevolent; merciful |
| 慈祥 | cí xiáng | kindly; benevolent (often of older person) |
| 与人为善 (與人為善) | yǔ rén wéi shàn | to be of service to others; to help others |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 慈善.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 慈悲 | cí bēi | mercy |
| 仁慈 | rén cí | benevolent; charitable |
| 慈善机构 (慈善機構) | cí shàn jī gòu | charity |
| 慈爱 (慈愛) | cí ài | love; devotion (to children) |
| 慈善家 | cí shàn jiā | philanthropist; humanitarian |
| 改善 | gǎi shàn | to make better; to improve |
| 完善 | wán shàn | (of systems, facilities etc) comprehensive; well-developed |
| 善于 (善於) | shàn yú | to be good at; to be adept at |
See also: Japanese symbol for “benevolent”.
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.