Chinese symbol for “punishment”
刑
xíng
punishment; penalty; sentence; torture
The closest CC-CEDICT match for punishment is 刑 (xíng), defined as: punishment; penalty; sentence; torture; corporal punishment.
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 “punishment”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 惩罚 (懲罰) | chéng fá | penalty; punishment |
| 制裁 | zhì cái | to punish; punishment |
| 刑罚 (刑罰) | xíng fá | sentence; penalty |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 刑.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 刑事 | xíng shì | criminal; penal |
| 死刑 | sǐ xíng | death penalty; capital punishment |
| 刑罚 (刑罰) | xíng fá | sentence; penalty |
| 刑法 | xíng fǎ | criminal law |
| 判刑 | pàn xíng | to sentence (to prison etc) |
| 徒刑 | tú xíng | prison sentence |
See also: Japanese symbol for “punishment”.
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.