Chinese symbol for “famine”
粮荒
liáng huāng
Traditional: 糧荒
famine; critical shortage of grain
The closest CC-CEDICT match for famine is 粮荒 (liáng huāng), defined as: famine; critical shortage of grain.
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 “famine”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 饥饿 (飢餓) | jī è | hunger; starvation |
| 凶 | xiōng | vicious; fierce |
| 饥荒 (饑荒) | jī huāng | crop failure; famine |
| 灾荒 (災荒) | zāi huāng | natural disaster; famine |
| 凶荒 | xiōng huāng | (literary) famine |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 粮荒.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 粮食 (糧食) | liáng shi | foodstuff; cereals |
| 粮仓 (糧倉) | liáng cāng | granary; barn |
| 口粮 (口糧) | kǒu liáng | ration |
| 食粮 (食糧) | shí liáng | food cereals |
| 商品粮 (商品糧) | shāng pǐn liáng | commodity grain (grain produced as a commodity rather than for self-sufficiency) |
| 杂粮 (雜糧) | zá liáng | grain crops other than rice and wheat |
| 荒谬 (荒謬) | huāng miù | absurd; ridiculous |
| 饥荒 (饑荒) | jī huāng | crop failure; famine |
See also: Japanese symbol for “famine”.
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.