Chinese symbol for “crave”
饥渴
jī kě
Traditional: 飢渴
hungry and thirsty; (fig.) to crave (knowledge, love etc)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for crave is 饥渴 (jī kě), defined as: hungry and thirsty; (fig.) to crave (knowledge, love etc).
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 “crave”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 垂涎三尺 | chuí xián sān chǐ | to drool (over) (idiom); to yearn for |
| 贪求 (貪求) | tān qiú | to pursue greedily; to crave |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 饥渴.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 饥饿 (飢餓) | jī è | hunger; starvation |
| 饥荒 (饑荒) | jī huāng | crop failure; famine |
| 充饥 (充飢) | chōng jī | to allay one's hunger |
| 如饥似渴 (如飢似渴) | rú jī sì kě | to hunger for sth (idiom); eagerly; to long for sth |
| 饥肠辘辘 (飢腸轆轆) | jī cháng lù lù | (idiom) stomach rumbling with hunger; very hungry |
| 渴望 | kě wàng | to thirst for; to long for |
| 渴求 | kě qiú | to long for; to crave for |
| 口渴 | kǒu kě | thirsty |
See also: Japanese symbol for “crave”.
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.