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
Other Chinese words for “cruelty”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 酷刑.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 残酷 (殘酷) | cán kù | cruel; harsh; merciless |
| 冷酷 | lěng kù | unfeeling; callous |
| 严酷 (嚴酷) | yán kù | bitter; harsh |
| 酷爱 (酷愛) | kù ài | to be keen on; to have a passion for |
| 酷暑 | kù shǔ | intense heat; extremely hot weather |
| 刑事 | xíng shì | criminal; penal |
| 死刑 | sǐ xíng | death penalty; capital punishment |
| 刑罚 (刑罰) | xíng fá | sentence; 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.