King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “penance”

苦行赎罪
kǔ xíng shú zuì
Traditional: 苦行贖罪
penance (to atone for a sin)

The closest CC-CEDICT match for penance is 苦行赎罪 (kǔ xíng shú zuì), defined as: penance (to atone for a sin).

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

苦 kǔ
bitter; hardship, suffering
radical 140 ⾋ · 9 strokes
行 xíng
to go, to walk, to move; professional
radical 144 ⾏ · 6 strokes
赎 shú
ransom; to buy; to redeem
radical 154 ⾙ · 12 strokes
罪 zuì
sin, vice; fault, guilt; crime
radical 122 ⽹ · 13 strokes

Traditional forms

Related words

Other words that share a character with 苦行赎罪.

WordPinyinMeaning
痛苦tòng kǔpain; suffering
辛苦xīn kǔexhausting; hard
苦难 (苦難)kǔ nànsuffering
艰苦 (艱苦)jiān kǔdifficult; hard
苦恼 (苦惱)kǔ nǎovexed; distressed
受苦shòu kǔto suffer hardship
进行 (進行)jìn xíng(of a process etc) to proceed; to be in progress; to be underway; (of people) to carry out; to conduct (an investigation or discussion etc)
举行 (舉行)jǔ xíngto hold (a meeting, ceremony etc)
救赎 (救贖)jiù shúto redeem; redemption; salvation
犯罪fàn zuìto commit a crime; crime; offense

See also: Japanese symbol for “penance”.

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.