King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “fate”

命运
mìng yùn
Traditional: 命運
fate; destiny

The closest CC-CEDICT match for fate is 命运 (mìng yùn), defined as: fate; destiny.

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

命 mìng
life; destiny, fate, luck; an order, instruction
radical 30 ⼝ · 8 strokes
运 yùn
to run; ship, transport; fortune, luck
radical 162 ⾡ · 7 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “fate”

WordPinyinMeaning
下场 (下場)xià changfate; end; outcome (usually unfortunate)
气数 (氣數)qì shufate; destiny
运命 (運命)yùn mìngfate; one's fortune
命mìnglife; fate
运 (運)yùnto move; to transport

Related words

Other words that share a character with 命运.

WordPinyinMeaning
革命gé mìngto withdraw the mandate of heaven (and transition to a new dynasty) (original meaning); revolution
生命shēng mìnglife (as the characteristic of living beings); living being; creature (条 (tiáo))
命令mìng lìngorder; command
任命rèn mìngto appoint; (job) appointment
命名mìng míngto give a name to; to dub
运动 (運動)yùn dòngto move; to exercise
运用 (運用)yùn yòngto use; to put to use
运行 (運行)yùn xíng(of celestial bodies etc) to move along one's course; (fig.) to function; to be in operation

See also: Japanese symbol for “fate”.

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.