Chinese symbol for “flare”

照明弹

zhào míng dàn

Traditional: 照明彈

flare; star shell

The closest CC-CEDICT match for flare is 照明弹 (zhào míng dàn), defined as: flare; star shell.

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

照 zhào

to shine, to reflect, to illuminate

radical 86 ⽕ · 13 strokes

明 míng

bright, clear; to explain, to understand, to shed light

radical 72 ⽇ · 8 strokes

弹 dàn

bullet, pellet, shell; elastic, springy

radical 57 ⼸ · 11 strokes

Traditional forms

彈 dàn

Other Chinese words for “flare”

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
闪亮 (閃亮)	shǎn liàng	brilliant; shiny
闪熠 (閃熠)	shǎn yì	to flare; to flash

Related words

Other words that share a character with 照明弹.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
照片	zhào piàn	photograph; 张 (zhāng),幅 (fú)
按照	àn zhào	according to; in accordance with; on the basis of
照顾 (照顧)	zhào gu	to take care of; to show consideration
依照	yī zhào	according to; in light of
护照 (護照)	hù zhào	passport; measure word: 本 (běn), 个 (gè)
拍照	pāi zhào	to take a picture
说明 (說明)	shuō míng	to explain; to illustrate
证明 (證明)	zhèng míng	proof; certificate
炸弹 (炸彈)	zhà dàn	bomb; measure word: 枚 (méi), 颗 (kē)

See also: Japanese symbol for “flare”.

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.