Chinese symbol for “flow”
流
liú
to flow; to disseminate; to circulate or spread; to move or drift
The closest CC-CEDICT match for flow is 流 (liú), defined as: to flow; to disseminate; to circulate or spread; to move or drift; to degenerate; to banish or send into exile.
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
Other Chinese words for “flow”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 流动 (流動) | liú dòng | to flow; to circulate; to move about; mobile; (of assets) liquid |
| 流淌 | liú tǎng | to flow |
| 流泻 (流瀉) | liú xiè | to flow; to flood |
| 心流 | xīn liú | (psychology) flow; being "in the zone" |
| 潺 | chán | flow; trickle (of water) |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 流.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 交流 | jiāo liú | to exchange; exchange |
| 流行 | liú xíng | (of a contagious disease etc) to spread; to propagate; (of a style of clothing, song etc) popular; fashionable |
| 主流 | zhǔ liú | main stream (of a river); fig. the essential point |
| 流动 (流動) | liú dòng | to flow; to circulate; to move about; mobile; (of assets) liquid |
| 流量 | liú liàng | flow rate; throughput of passengers; volume of traffic; (hydrology) discharge |
| 流通 | liú tōng | to circulate; to distribute; circulation; distribution |
See also: Japanese symbol for “flow”.
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.