King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “directions”

说明
shuō míng
Traditional: 說明
to explain; to illustrate; to indicate; to show

The closest CC-CEDICT match for directions is 说明 (shuō míng), defined as: to explain; to illustrate; to indicate; to show; to prove; explanation.

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

说 shuō
to speak, to say; to scold, to upbraid
radical 149 ⾔ · 9 strokes
明 míng
bright, clear; to explain, to understand, to shed light
radical 72 ⽇ · 8 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “directions”

WordPinyinMeaning
指引zhǐ yǐnto guide; to show
说明书 (說明書)shuō míng shū(technical) manual; (book of) directions
攻略gōng lüè(literary) to storm and capture; strategy; directions; guide; how-to

Related words

Other words that share a character with 说明.

WordPinyinMeaning
小说 (小說)xiǎo shuōnovel; fiction
说话 (說話)shuō huàto speak; to say
听说 (聽說)tīng shuōto hear (sth said); one hears (that)
说法 (說法)shuō fǎto expound Buddhist teachings
证明 (證明)zhèng míngproof; certificate
明白míng baiclear; obvious; unequivocal; sensible; reasonable
明显 (明顯)míng xiǎnclear; distinct
明天míng tiāntomorrow

See also: Japanese symbol for “directions”.

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.