King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “oppressive”

沉闷
chén mèn
Traditional: 沉悶
oppressive (of weather); heavy; depressed; not happy

The closest CC-CEDICT match for oppressive is 沉闷 (chén mèn), defined as: oppressive (of weather); heavy; depressed; not happy; (of sound) dull; muffled.

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

沉 chén
to sink, to submerge; profound, deep
radical 85 ⽔ · 7 strokes
闷 mèn
gloomy, depressed, melancholy
radical 169 ⾨ · 7 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “oppressive”

WordPinyinMeaning
虐nüè(bound form) brutal; oppressive; harsh; (literary) disaster; catastrophe
压抑 (壓抑)yā yìto constrain or repress emotions; oppressive
刻kèquarter (hour); moment
残 (殘)cánto destroy; to spoil
暴虐无道 (暴虐無道)bào nüè wú dào(idiom) tyrannical; oppressive; lawless

Related words

Other words that share a character with 沉闷.

WordPinyinMeaning
沉默chén mòtaciturn; uncommunicative
沉重chén zhòngheavy; hard
沉淀 (沈澱)chén diànvariant of 沉淀 (chén diàn)
沉浸chén jìnto soak; to permeate
沉睡chén shuìto be fast asleep; (fig.) to lie dormant; to lie undiscovered
郁闷 (鬱悶)yù mèngloomy; depressed
纳闷 (納悶)nà mènpuzzled; bewildered
闷热 (悶熱)mēn rèsultry; sultriness

See also: Japanese symbol for “oppressive”.

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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