Chinese symbol for “eat”
吃
chī
to eat; to consume; to eat at (a cafeteria etc); to eradicate; to destroy; to absorb
The closest CC-CEDICT match for eat is 吃 (chī), defined as: to eat; to consume; to eat at (a cafeteria etc); to eradicate; to destroy; to absorb; to suffer (shock, injury, defeat etc).
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 “eat”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 食 | shí | to eat; food |
| 食用 | shí yòng | to eat; to consume; edible |
| 进食 (進食) | jìn shí | to eat; to take food |
| 用 | yòng | to use; to make use of; to employ; (coverb) with; using |
| 哺 (餔) | bū | to eat; evening meal |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 吃.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 吃饭 (吃飯) | chī fàn | to have a meal; to eat |
| 好吃 | hǎo chī | tasty; delicious |
| 吃惊 (吃驚) | chī jīng | to be startled; to be shocked |
| 小吃 | xiǎo chī | street food; snack |
| 吃掉 | chī diào | to eat up; to consume |
See also: Japanese symbol for “eat”.
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.