King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “critical”

严重
yán zhòng
Traditional: 嚴重
grave; serious; severe; critical

The closest CC-CEDICT match for critical is 严重 (yán zhòng), defined as: grave; serious; severe; critical.

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

严 yán
strict, rigorous, rigid; stern
radical 1 ⼀ · 7 strokes
重 zhòng
heavy, weighty; to double, to repeat
radical 166 ⾥ · 9 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “critical”

WordPinyinMeaning
危急wēi jícritical; desperate (situation)
临界 (臨界)lín jiècritical; boundary
紧要 (緊要)jǐn yàocritical; crucial
沉重chén zhòngheavy; hard
吃紧 (吃緊)chī jǐnin short supply; dire

Related words

Other words that share a character with 严重.

WordPinyinMeaning
严格 (嚴格)yán géstrict; stringent; tight; rigorous
严肃 (嚴肅)yán sù(of an atmosphere etc) solemn; grave; serious; (of a manner etc) earnest; severe; exacting
尊严 (尊嚴)zūn yándignity; sanctity
严厉 (嚴厲)yán lìsevere; strict
严峻 (嚴峻)yán jùngrim; severe
重要zhòng yàoimportant; significant; major
重点 (重點)chóng diǎnto recount (e.g. results of election); to re-evaluate
重新chóng xīnagain; once more; re-

See also: Japanese symbol for “critical”.

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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