Chinese symbol for “ruthless”
狠
hěn
ruthless; fierce; ferocious; determined; resolute; to harden (one's heart); old variant of 很 (hěn)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for ruthless is 狠 (hěn), defined as: ruthless; fierce; ferocious; determined; resolute; to harden (one's heart); old variant of 很 (hěn).
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 “ruthless”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 酷 | kù | ruthless; strong (e.g. of wine) |
| 暴戾 | bào lì | ruthless |
| 残忍 (殘忍) | cán rěn | cruel; merciless; ruthless |
| 残暴 (殘暴) | cán bào | brutal; vicious; ruthless |
| 无情 (無情) | wú qíng | pitiless; ruthless |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 狠.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 狠狠 | hěn hěn | resolutely; firmly |
| 凶狠 (兇狠) | xiōng hěn | variant of 凶狠 (xiōng hěn) |
| 狠心 | hěn xīn | callous; heartless; to resolve (to do sth) |
| 狠毒 | hěn dú | vicious; malicious |
| 心狠手辣 | xīn hěn shǒu là | (idiom) vicious; merciless |
See also: Japanese symbol for “ruthless”.
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.