Chinese symbol for “pensive”
悠悠
yōu yōu
lasting for ages; long drawn out; remote in time or space; unhurried
The closest CC-CEDICT match for pensive is 悠悠 (yōu yōu), defined as: lasting for ages; long drawn out; remote in time or space; unhurried; a great number (of events); preposterous.
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
Other Chinese words for “pensive”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 悠 | yōu | long or drawn out; remote in time or space |
| 忧思 (憂思) | yōu sī | to be anxious and worried; agitated |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 悠悠.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 悠久 | yōu jiǔ | long (tradition, history etc) |
| 悠闲 (悠閑) | yōu xián | variant of 悠閒|悠闲; leisurely |
| 忽悠 | hū you | to rock; to sway |
| 历史悠久 (歷史悠久) | lì shǐ yōu jiǔ | long-established; time-honored |
See also: Japanese symbol for “pensive”.
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.