Chinese symbol for “illicit”
私
sī
(bound form) personal; private; (bound form) selfish; (bound form) clandestine; (bound form) illicit
The closest CC-CEDICT match for illicit is 私 (sī), defined as: (bound form) personal; private; (bound form) selfish; (bound form) clandestine; (bound form) illicit; (Internet slang) to send a private message to 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
Other Chinese words for “illicit”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 违禁 (違禁) | wéi jìn | to violate a prohibition or ban; prohibited |
| 苟且 | gǒu qiě | perfunctory; careless |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 私.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 私人 | sī rén | private; personal |
| 隐私 (隱私) | yǐn sī | secrets; private business |
| 走私 | zǒu sī | to smuggle; to have an illicit affair |
| 自私 | zì sī | selfish; selfishness |
| 私下 | sī xià | in private |
| 私营 (私營) | sī yíng | privately-owned; private |
See also: Japanese symbol for “illicit”.
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.