King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “cruelty”

酷刑
kù xíng
cruelty; torture

The closest CC-CEDICT match for cruelty is 酷刑 (kù xíng), defined as: cruelty; torture.

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

酷 kù
strong, stimulating; ruthless, intense
radical 164 ⾣ · 14 strokes
刑 xíng
punishment, penalty; law
radical 18 ⼑ · 6 strokes

Other Chinese words for “cruelty”

WordPinyinMeaning
残毒 (殘毒)cán dúcruelty

Related words

Other words that share a character with 酷刑.

WordPinyinMeaning
残酷 (殘酷)cán kùcruel; harsh; merciless
冷酷lěng kùunfeeling; callous
严酷 (嚴酷)yán kùbitter; harsh
酷爱 (酷愛)kù àito be keen on; to have a passion for
酷暑kù shǔintense heat; extremely hot weather
刑事xíng shìcriminal; penal
死刑sǐ xíngdeath penalty; capital punishment
刑罚 (刑罰)xíng fásentence; penalty

See also: Japanese symbol for “cruelty”.

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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