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
Other Chinese words for “provoke”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 惹 | rě | to provoke; to irritate |
| 挑衅 (挑釁) | tiǎo xìn | to provoke; provocation |
| 挑起 | tiǎo qǐ | to provoke; to stir up |
| 挑逗 | tiǎo dòu | to provoke; to entice |
| 惹人 | rě rén | to provoke (esp. annoyance, disgust etc); to offend |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 刺激.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 讽刺 (諷刺) | fěng cì | to satirize; to mock |
| 刺杀 (刺殺) | cì shā | to assassinate; (military) to fight with a bayonet |
| 刺客 | cì kè | assassin |
| 遇刺 | yù cì | to be attacked by an assassin |
| 刺史 | cì shǐ | provincial governor (old) |
| 激烈 | jī liè | (of competition or fighting) intense; fierce |
| 激动 (激動) | jī dòng | to move emotionally; to stir up (emotions) |
| 激发 (激發) | jī fā | to 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.