King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “north”

北
běi
north; (classical) to be defeated

The closest CC-CEDICT match for north is 北 (běi), defined as: north; (classical) to be defeated.

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

北 běi
north; northern; northward
radical 21 ⼔ · 5 strokes

Other Chinese words for “north”

WordPinyinMeaning
北方běi fāngnorth; the northern part a country
北边 (北邊)běi biānnorth; north side
北面běi miànnorthern side; north
朔shuòbeginning; first day of lunar month
北国 (北國)běi guóthe northern part of the country; the North

Related words

Other words that share a character with 北.

WordPinyinMeaning
东北 (東北)dōng běinortheast
北部běi bùnorthern part
北方běi fāngnorth; the northern part a country
西北xī běinorthwest
南北nán běinorth and south; north to south
以北yǐ běito the north of (suffix)

See also: Japanese symbol for “north”.

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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