King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “drowsy”

瞌睡
kē shuì
drowsy; to doze; to nap

The closest CC-CEDICT match for drowsy is 瞌睡 (kē shuì), defined as: drowsy; to doze; to nap.

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

瞌 kē
sleepy; to doze off
radical 109 ⽬ · 15 strokes
睡 shuì
to sleep, to doze
radical 109 ⽬ · 13 strokes

Other Chinese words for “drowsy”

WordPinyinMeaning
昏昏欲睡hūn hūn yù shuìdrowsy; sleepy (idiom)
想睡xiǎng shuìdrowsy; sleepy

Related words

Other words that share a character with 瞌睡.

WordPinyinMeaning
打瞌睡dǎ kē shuìto doze; to nod off
瞌睡虫 (瞌睡蟲)kē shuì chóngmythological insect that makes people doze off; (fig.) drowsiness
睡觉 (睡覺)shuì jiàoto go to bed; to sleep
睡眠shuì miánsleep; to sleep
睡着 (睡著)shuì zháoto fall asleep
入睡rù shuìto fall asleep
睡衣shuì yīnight clothes; pajamas
沉睡chén shuìto be fast asleep; (fig.) to lie dormant; to lie undiscovered

See also: Japanese symbol for “drowsy”.

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.