Chinese symbol for “hungry”
饿
è
Traditional: 餓
hungry; to starve (sb)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for hungry is 饿 (è), defined as: hungry; to starve (sb).
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 “hungry”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 饥 (飢) | jī | (bound form) hungry |
| 馁 (餒) | něi | (bound form) hungry; starving; (bound form) dispirited |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 饿.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 饥饿 (飢餓) | jī è | hunger; starvation |
| 饿死 (餓死) | è sǐ | to starve to death; to be very hungry |
| 挨饿 (挨餓) | ái è | to go hungry; to endure starvation |
| 饿肚子 (餓肚子) | è dù zi | to go hungry; to starve |
| 饿鬼 (餓鬼) | è guǐ | sb who is always hungry; glutton |
| 饿殍 (餓殍) | è piǎo | starving people |
See also: Japanese symbol for “hungry”.
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.