King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “groan”

哼
hēng
to groan; to snort; to hum; to croon

The closest CC-CEDICT match for groan is 哼 (hēng), defined as: to groan; to snort; to hum; to croon; humph!.

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

哼 hēng
to hum; to sing softly; to moan, to groan
radical 30 ⼝ · 10 strokes

Other Chinese words for “groan”

WordPinyinMeaning
呻吟shēn yínto moan; to groan
咯吱gē zhī(onom.) creak; groan
悲鸣 (悲鳴)bēi míngto utter a mournful cry; wail; groan
呻shēn(literary) to recite; to chant; to intone; (bound form) groan
唶jièsigh; groan

Related words

Other words that share a character with 哼.

WordPinyinMeaning
哼唱hēng chàngto hum; to croon
哼哼唧唧hēng hēng jī jīwhining; groaning
哼声 (哼聲)hēng shēnghum
哼唧hēng jiwhisper
哼哧hēng chīto puff hard (e.g. after running)
哼儿哈儿 (哼兒哈兒)hēng r hā rto hem and haw (loanword)

See also: Japanese symbol for “groan”.

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.

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