Chinese symbol for “grief”
哀伤
āi shāng
Traditional: 哀傷
grief; distress; bereavement; grieved; heartbroken; dejected
The closest CC-CEDICT match for grief is 哀伤 (āi shāng), defined as: grief; distress; bereavement; grieved; heartbroken; dejected.
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 “grief”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 沉痛 | chén tòng | grief; remorse |
| 哀怨 | āi yuàn | grief; resentment |
| 恸 (慟) | tòng | grief |
| 哀 | āi | (bound form) sorrow; grief; pity; (bound form) to grieve for; to pity; to lament; to condole |
| 悲 | bēi | sad; sadness |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 哀伤.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 悲哀 | bēi āi | grieved; sorrowful |
| 哀悼 | āi dào | to grieve over sb's death; to lament sb's death |
| 哀求 | āi qiú | to entreat; to implore |
| 默哀 | mò āi | to observe a moment of silence in tribute |
| 致哀 | zhì āi | to express grief; to mourn |
| 伤害 (傷害) | shāng hài | to injure; to harm |
| 受伤 (受傷) | shòu shāng | to sustain injuries; wounded (in an accident etc) |
| 伤心 (傷心) | shāng xīn | to grieve; to be broken-hearted |
See also: Japanese symbol for “grief”.
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.