Chinese symbol for “brutal”
残暴
cán bào
Traditional: 殘暴
brutal; vicious; ruthless
The closest CC-CEDICT match for brutal is 残暴 (cán bào), defined as: brutal; vicious; ruthless.
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 “brutal”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 虐 | nüè | (bound form) brutal; oppressive; harsh; (literary) disaster; catastrophe |
| 暴虐 | bào nüè | brutal; tyrannical |
| 兽性 (獸性) | shòu xìng | brutal |
| 凶暴 | xiōng bào | brutal |
| 横暴 (橫暴) | hèng bào | brutal; violent |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 残暴.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 残酷 (殘酷) | cán kù | cruel; harsh; merciless |
| 残忍 (殘忍) | cán rěn | cruel; merciless; ruthless |
| 残疾 (殘疾) | cán jí | disabled; handicapped |
| 残疾人 (殘疾人) | cán jí rén | disabled person |
| 残留 (殘留) | cán liú | to remain; to be left over; residual; remnant |
| 暴力 | bào lì | violence; force |
| 风暴 (風暴) | fēng bào | storm; violent commotion |
| 暴露 | bào lù | to expose; to reveal |
See also: Japanese symbol for “brutal”.
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.