Chinese symbol for “incentive”
激励
jī lì
Traditional: 激勵
to encourage; to urge; motivation; incentive
The closest CC-CEDICT match for incentive is 激励 (jī lì), defined as: to encourage; to urge; motivation; incentive.
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 “incentive”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 激励.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 刺激 | cì jī | to provoke; to irritate; to upset; to stimulate; to excite; irritant |
| 激烈 | jī liè | (of competition or fighting) intense; fierce |
| 激动 (激動) | jī dòng | to move emotionally; to stir up (emotions) |
| 激发 (激發) | jī fā | to arouse; to stimulate |
| 激情 | jī qíng | passion; fervor |
| 鼓励 (鼓勵) | gǔ lì | to encourage |
| 奖励 (獎勵) | jiǎng lì | to reward; reward (as encouragement) |
| 励志 (勵志) | lì zhì | to pursue a goal with determination; inspirational; motivational |
See also: Japanese symbol for “incentive”.
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.