Chinese symbol for “empress”
后
hòu
empress; queen; (archaic) monarch; ruler
The closest CC-CEDICT match for empress is 后 (hòu), defined as: empress; queen; (archaic) monarch; ruler.
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 “empress”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 皇后 | huáng hòu | empress; imperial consort |
| 女皇 | nǚ huáng | empress |
| 帝后 | dì hòu | empress; imperial consort |
| 娘娘 | niáng niang | queen; empress |
| 正宫娘娘 (正宮娘娘) | zhèng gōng niáng niáng | empress |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 后.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 最后 (最後) | zuì hòu | final; last; ultimate; finally; in the end |
| 之后 (之後) | zhī hòu | after; behind; (at the beginning of a sentence) afterwards; since then |
| 然后 (然後) | rán hòu | then; after that; afterwards |
| 以后 (以後) | yǐ hòu | after; later |
| 后来 (後來) | hòu lái | afterwards; later; newly arrived |
| 后面 (後面) | hòu mian | the back; the rear; the last bit; behind; near the end; at the back |
See also: Japanese symbol for “empress”.
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.