King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “provoke”

刺激
cì jī
to provoke; to irritate; to upset; to stimulate; to excite; irritant

The closest CC-CEDICT match for provoke is 刺激 (cì jī), defined as: to provoke; to irritate; to upset; to stimulate; to excite; irritant.

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

刺 cì
to stab; to prick, to irritate; to prod
radical 18 ⼑ · 8 strokes
激 jī
to arouse, to incite; acute, sharp; fierce, violent
radical 85 ⽔ · 16 strokes

Other Chinese words for “provoke”

WordPinyinMeaning
惹rěto provoke; to irritate
挑衅 (挑釁)tiǎo xìnto provoke; provocation
挑起tiǎo qǐto provoke; to stir up
挑逗tiǎo dòuto provoke; to entice
惹人rě rénto provoke (esp. annoyance, disgust etc); to offend

Related words

Other words that share a character with 刺激.

WordPinyinMeaning
讽刺 (諷刺)fěng cìto satirize; to mock
刺杀 (刺殺)cì shāto assassinate; (military) to fight with a bayonet
刺客cì kèassassin
遇刺yù cìto be attacked by an assassin
刺史cì shǐprovincial governor (old)
激烈jī liè(of competition or fighting) intense; fierce
激动 (激動)jī dòngto move emotionally; to stir up (emotions)
激发 (激發)jī fāto arouse; to stimulate

See also: Japanese symbol for “provoke”.

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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