Chinese symbol for “choke”
憋
biē
to choke; to stifle; to restrain; to hold back
The closest CC-CEDICT match for choke is 憋 (biē), defined as: to choke; to stifle; to restrain; to hold back; to hold in (urine); to hold (one's breath).
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 “choke”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 窒息 | zhì xī | to choke; to stifle |
| 呛 (嗆) | qiāng | to choke (because of swallowing the wrong way) |
| 咽 | yè | to choke (in crying) |
| 噎 | yē | to choke (on); to choke up |
| 噎住 | yē zhù | to choke (on); to choke off (in speech) |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 憋.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 憋气 (憋氣) | biē qì | to hold one's breath; to feel suffocated (for lack of air) |
| 憋不住 | biē bu zhù | to be unable to repress sth; to be unable to contain oneself |
| 憋屈 | biē qū | sullen |
| 憋闷 (憋悶) | biē men | to feel oppressed; to be depressed |
| 憋尿 | biē niào | to hold in one's pee; to hold back from urinating |
| 憋笑 | biē xiào | to stifle a guffaw |
See also: Japanese symbol for “choke”.
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.