Chinese symbol for “salty”
咸
xián
Traditional: 鹹
salted; salty; stingy; miserly
The closest CC-CEDICT match for salty is 咸 (xián), defined as: salted; salty; stingy; miserly.
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
Traditional forms
Related words
Other words that share a character with 咸.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 咸菜 (鹹菜) | xián cài | salted vegetables; pickles |
| 咸鱼 (鹹魚) | xián yú | salted fish |
| 咸水 (鹹水) | xián shuǐ | salt water; brine |
| 咸水湖 (鹹水湖) | xián shuǐ hú | salt lake |
| 咸湿 (鹹濕) | xián shī | (Tw) (coll.) obscene; pornographic |
| 咸肉 (鹹肉) | xián ròu | bacon; salt-cured meat |
See also: Japanese symbol for “salty”.
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.