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
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “ferment”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 酝酿 (醞釀) | yùn niàng | (of alcohol) to ferment; (of a crisis) to be brewing |
| 酿 (釀) | niàng | to ferment; to brew |
| 酶 | méi | enzyme; ferment |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 发酵.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 发展 (發展) | fā zhǎn | development; growth |
| 发生 (發生) | fā shēng | to 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 xiàn | to notice; to become aware of; to discover; to find; to detect |
| 开发 (開發) | kāi fā | to exploit (a resource); to open up (for development); to develop |
| 发布 (發佈) | fā bù | variant of 发布 (fā bù) |
| 酵母 | jiào mǔ | yeast; saccharomycete (abbr. for 酵母菌 (jiào mǔ jūn)) |
| 酵素 | jiào sù | enzyme |
| 酵母菌 | jiào mǔ jūn | yeast; 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.