King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “need”

需要
xū yào
to need; to want; to demand; to require; needs

The closest CC-CEDICT match for need is 需要 (xū yào), defined as: to need; to want; to demand; to require; needs.

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

需 xū
to need, to require; must
radical 173 ⾬ · 14 strokes
要 yào
essential, necessary; to ask for; to coerce; to demand
radical 146 ⾑ · 9 strokes

Other Chinese words for “need”

WordPinyinMeaning
要yàoto want; to need; to ask for; will; shall; about to
必需bì xūto need; to require
用yòngto use; to make use of; to employ; (coverb) with; using
需xūto require; to need
待dàito wait; to treat

Related words

Other words that share a character with 需要.

WordPinyinMeaning
需求xū qiúrequirement; to require
无需 (無需)wú xūneedless
必需bì xūto need; to require
急需jí xūto urgently need; urgent need
必需品bì xū pǐnnecessity; essential (thing)
主要zhǔ yàomain; principal; major; primary
重要zhòng yàoimportant; significant; major
要求yāo qiúto request; to require

See also: Japanese symbol for “need”.

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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