Chinese symbol for “childhood”
童年
tóng nián
childhood
The closest CC-CEDICT match for childhood is 童年 (tóng nián), defined as: childhood.
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 “childhood”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 儿时 (兒時) | ér shí | childhood |
| 幼年 | yòu nián | childhood; infancy |
| 幼时 (幼時) | yòu shí | childhood |
| 冲龄 (沖齡) | chōng líng | childhood (typically used in reference to an emperor) |
| 总角 (總角) | zǒng jiǎo | (literary) children's hairstyle with hair tied into a bun on both sides of the head; (fig.) childhood |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 童年.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 儿童 (兒童) | ér tóng | child |
| 童话 (童話) | tóng huà | children's fairy tales |
| 女童 | nǚ tóng | little girl |
| 孩童 | hái tóng | child |
| 幼童 | yòu tóng | young child |
| 年代 | nián dài | a decade of a century (e.g. the Sixties); age |
| 今年 | jīn nián | this year |
| 每年 | měi nián | every year; each year |
See also: Japanese symbol for “childhood”.
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.