King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “ferment”

发酵
fā jiào
Traditional: 發酵
to ferment; (fig.) (of trends, emotions or repercussions etc) to bubble away; to simmer; to develop

The closest CC-CEDICT match for ferment is 发酵 (fā jiào), defined as: to ferment; (fig.) (of trends, emotions or repercussions etc) to bubble away; to simmer; to develop.

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

发 fā
to issue, to dispatch, to send out; hair
radical 29 ⼜ · 5 strokes
酵 jiào
yeast; to leaven
radical 164 ⾣ · 14 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “ferment”

WordPinyinMeaning
酝酿 (醞釀)yùn niàng(of alcohol) to ferment; (of a crisis) to be brewing
酿 (釀)niàngto ferment; to brew
酶méienzyme; ferment

Related words

Other words that share a character with 发酵.

WordPinyinMeaning
发展 (發展)fā zhǎndevelopment; growth
发生 (發生)fā shēngto 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 xiànto notice; to become aware of; to discover; to find; to detect
开发 (開發)kāi fāto exploit (a resource); to open up (for development); to develop
发布 (發佈)fā bùvariant of 发布 (fā bù)
酵母jiào mǔyeast; saccharomycete (abbr. for 酵母菌 (jiào mǔ jūn))
酵素jiào sùenzyme
酵母菌jiào mǔ jūnyeast; saccharomycete

See also: Japanese symbol for “ferment”.

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.

Last posts

  1. How Long Should a Bokken Be for Your Height
  2. Red Oak vs White Oak for Bokken Which Wood Wins
  3. Best Bokken for Beginners: Choosing Your First Training Sword
  4. Best Escrima Sticks for Students Choosing Your First Pair
  5. Essential Accessories for Your First Pair of Escrima Sticks
  6. Best Escrima Sticks for Your First Seminar
  7. Best Canes for Cane-Fu and Hapkido Training
  8. Which Rattan Sticks Have the Most Nodes for Durability
  9. Choosing Filipino Martial Arts Sticks for Double Work
  10. Choosing a Cane for Self-Defense Class Training