King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “explain”

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

The closest CC-CEDICT match for explain 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 “explain”

WordPinyinMeaning
释 (釋)shìto explain; to release
解说 (解說)jiě shuōto explain (verbally); to give a running commentary
讲解 (講解)jiǎng jiěto explain
说 (說)shuōto speak; to talk; to say; to explain; to comment
辩解 (辯解)biàn jiěto explain; to justify

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 “explain”.

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.

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