Chinese symbol for “frightening”
恐怖
kǒng bù
terrible; frightful; frightening; terror
The closest CC-CEDICT match for frightening is 恐怖 (kǒng bù), defined as: terrible; frightful; frightening; terror; terrorist.
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 “frightening”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 吓人 (嚇人) | xià rén | to scare; scary |
| 惊心胆颤 (驚心膽顫) | jīng xīn dǎn chàn | frightening; frightened (idiom) |
| 瘆得慌 (瘮得慌) | shèn de huāng | frightening; frightened |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 恐怖.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 恐惧 (恐懼) | kǒng jù | fear; dread; to fear; to dread |
| 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 |
| 恐怖分子 (恐怖份子) | kǒng bù fèn zǐ | variant of 恐怖分子 (kǒng bù fèn zǐ) |
| 恐怖组织 (恐怖組織) | kǒng bù zǔ zhī | terrorist organization |
| 恐怖片 | kǒng bù piàn | horror movie; measure word: 部 (bù) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “frightening”.
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.