Chinese symbol for “brooding”
耿耿于怀
gěng gěng yú huái
Traditional: 耿耿於懷
to take troubles to heart (idiom); brooding
The closest CC-CEDICT match for brooding is 耿耿于怀 (gěng gěng yú huái), defined as: to take troubles to heart (idiom); brooding.
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 “brooding”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 懊𢙐 (懊憹) | ào náo | anxious; brooding |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 耿耿于怀.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 耿直 | gěng zhí | honest; frank; candid |
| 忠心耿耿 | zhōng xīn gěng gěng | loyal and devoted (idiom); faithful and true |
| 耿耿 | gěng gěng | bright; devoted |
| 耿介 | gěng jiè | upright and outstanding |
| 耿饼 (耿餅) | gěng bǐng | dried persimmon (from Geng village, Heze 荷澤|荷泽, Shandong) |
| 对于 (對於) | duì yú | regarding; as far as (sth) is concerned; with regard to |
| 由于 (由於) | yóu yú | due to; as a result of |
| 关于 (關於) | guān yú | pertaining to; concerning |
| 怀疑 (懷疑) | huái yí | to doubt (sth); to be skeptical of; to have one's doubts; to harbor suspicions; to suspect that |
See also: Japanese symbol for “brooding”.
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.