Chinese symbol for “hell”
地狱
dì yù
Traditional: 地獄
hell; underworld; (Buddhism) Naraka; (coll.) (of humor, jokes, content etc) extremely dark or morally transgressive
The closest CC-CEDICT match for hell is 地狱 (dì yù), defined as: hell; underworld; (Buddhism) Naraka; (coll.) (of humor, jokes, content etc) extremely dark or morally transgressive.
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 “hell”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 地府 | dì fǔ | hell; the nether world |
| 阴司 (陰司) | yīn sī | hell; nether world |
| 阴曹 (陰曹) | yīn cáo | hell; the inferno |
| 幽冥 | yōu míng | dark; hell |
| 冥府 | míng fǔ | underworld; hell |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 地狱.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 地区 (地區) | dì qū | region; area (informal or geographical term); prefecture (in China's administrative system) |
| 地方 | dì fāng | region; regional (away from the central administration) |
| 当地 (當地) | dāng dì | local |
| 土地 | tǔ dì | land; soil |
| 监狱 (監獄) | jiān yù | prison |
| 入狱 (入獄) | rù yù | to go to jail; to be sent to prison |
| 出狱 (出獄) | chū yù | to be released from prison |
| 越狱 (越獄) | yuè yù | to break out of prison; to jailbreak (an iOS device etc) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “hell”.
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.