Chinese symbol for “fear”
恐惧
kǒng jù
Traditional: 恐懼
fear; dread; to fear; to dread
The closest CC-CEDICT match for fear is 恐惧 (kǒng jù), defined as: fear; dread; to fear; to dread.
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 “fear”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 恐怕 | kǒng pà | fear; to dread |
| 畏惧 (畏懼) | wèi jù | to fear; to dread |
| 惧 (懼) | jù | to fear |
| 生怕 | shēng pà | to fear; afraid |
| 畏 | wèi | to fear |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 恐惧.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 恐怖 | kǒng bù | terrible; frightful |
| 恐怕 | kǒng pà | fear; to dread |
| 恐怖主义 (恐怖主義) | kǒng bù zhǔ yì | terrorism |
| 反恐 | fǎn kǒng | anti-terrorism; to fight against terrorism |
| 恐慌 | kǒng huāng | panic; panicky |
| 畏惧 (畏懼) | wèi jù | to fear; to dread |
| 惧怕 (懼怕) | jù pà | to be afraid |
| 恐惧症 (恐懼症) | kǒng jù zhèng | phobia |
See also: Japanese symbol for “fear”.
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.