Chinese symbol for “enlighten”
启发
qǐ fā
Traditional: 啟發
to enlighten; to explain (a text etc); to stimulate (a mental attitude); enlightenment
The closest CC-CEDICT match for enlighten is 启发 (qǐ fā), defined as: to enlighten; to explain (a text etc); to stimulate (a mental attitude); enlightenment; revelation; motivation.
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
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “enlighten”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 迪 | dí | to enlighten |
| 教化 | jiào huà | to enlighten; to civilize |
| 牖 | yǒu | to enlighten; lattice window |
| 开导 (開導) | kāi dǎo | to talk sb round; to straighten sth out; to enlighten |
| 启示 (啟示) | qǐ shì | to reveal; to enlighten |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 启发.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 启动 (啟動) | qǐ dòng | to start (a machine); (fig.) to set in motion |
| 开启 (開啟) | kāi qǐ | to start; to begin; to initiate (an era, process, journey etc); (computing) to enable (a feature) |
| 启用 (啟用) | qǐ yòng | to start using; (computing) to enable (a feature) |
| 启蒙 (啟矇) | qǐ méng | variant of 启蒙 (qǐ méng); to instruct the young |
| 发展 (發展) | fā zhǎn | development; growth |
| 发生 (發生) | fā shēng | to happen; to occur; to take place; to arise (e.g. 发生问题 (fā shēng wèn tí) "a problem arises") |
| 发现 (發現) | fā xiàn | to notice; to become aware of; to discover; to find; to detect |
| 开发 (開發) | kāi fā | to exploit (a resource); to open up (for development); to develop |
See also: Japanese symbol for “enlighten”.
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.