Chinese symbol for “cough”
咳嗽
ké sou
to cough; 阵 (zhèn)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for cough is 咳嗽 (ké sou), defined as: to cough; 阵 (zhèn).
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 “cough”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 咳嗽.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 止咳 | zhǐ ké | to suppress coughing |
| 百日咳 | bǎi rì ké | whooping cough; pertussis |
| 干咳 (乾咳) | gān ké | to cough without phlegm; a dry cough |
| 咳血 | ké xiě | to cough up blood |
| 咳痰 | ké tán | to cough up phlegm; to expectorate |
See also: Japanese symbol for “cough”.
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.