Chinese symbol for “plague”
瘟疫
wēn yì
plague; pestilence
The closest CC-CEDICT match for plague is 瘟疫 (wēn yì), defined as: plague; pestilence.
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 “plague”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 疫病 | yì bìng | plague; a blight |
| 鼠疫 | shǔ yì | plague |
| 瘟 | wēn | epidemic; pestilence; plague; (fig.) stupid; dull; (of a performance) lackluster |
| 疫 | yì | (bound form) epidemic; plague |
| 札 | zhá | thin piece of wood used a writing tablet (in ancient China); a kind of official document (in former times) |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 瘟疫.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 猪瘟 (豬瘟) | zhū wēn | swine fever |
| 瘟神 | wēn shén | demon personifying pestilence |
| 犬瘟热 (犬瘟熱) | quǎn wēn rè | canine distemper (mammalian disease caused by Canine morbillivirus) |
| 五瘟 | wǔ wēn | five chief demons of folklore personifying pestilence |
| 五瘟神 | wǔ wēn shén | five chief demons of folklore personifying pestilence; cf four horsemen of the apocalypse |
| 疫情 | yì qíng | epidemic; outbreak |
| 疫苗 | yì miáo | vaccine |
| 免疫 | miǎn yì | immunity (to disease) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “plague”.
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.