King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “consciousness”

意识
yì shí
Traditional: 意識
consciousness; awareness; (usu. followed by 到 (dào)) to be aware of; to realize

The closest CC-CEDICT match for consciousness is 意识 (yì shí), defined as: consciousness; awareness; (usu. followed by 到 (dào)) to be aware of; to realize.

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

意 yì
thought, idea, opinion; desire, wish; meaning, intention
radical 61 ⼼ · 13 strokes
识 shí
knowledge; to understand, to recognize, to know
radical 149 ⾔ · 7 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “consciousness”

WordPinyinMeaning
神志shén zhìconsciousness; state of mind
精神jīng shénspirit; mind
思想意识 (思想意識)sī xiǎng yì shíconsciousness
觉悟 (覺悟)jué wùto come to understand; to realize
知觉 (知覺)zhī juéperception; consciousness

Related words

Other words that share a character with 意识.

WordPinyinMeaning
注意zhù yìto take note of; to pay attention to
意见 (意見)yì jiànidea; opinion
意思yì siidea; opinion
意义 (意義)yì yìsense; meaning
愿意 (願意)yuàn yìto wish; to want
同意tóng yìto agree; to consent
认识 (認識)rèn shito know; to recognize
知识 (知識)zhī shiknowledge; 门 (mén)

See also: Japanese symbol for “consciousness”.

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.

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