Chinese symbol for “say”
说
shuō
Traditional: 說
to speak; to talk; to say; to explain; to comment; to scold; to tell off; (bound form) theory; doctrine
The closest CC-CEDICT match for say is 说 (shuō), defined as: to speak; to talk; to say; to explain; to comment; to scold; to tell off; (bound form) theory; doctrine.
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
Other Chinese words for “say”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 告 | gào | (bound form) to say; to tell; to announce; to report |
| 道 | dào | road; path (条 (tiáo),股 (gǔ)); (bound form) way; reason; principle |
| 说话 (說話) | shuō huà | to speak; to say |
| 言 | yán | words; speech |
| 云 | yún | (classical) to say |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 说.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 说明 (說明) | shuō míng | to explain; to illustrate |
| 小说 (小說) | xiǎo shuō | novel; fiction |
| 说话 (說話) | shuō huà | to speak; to say |
| 听说 (聽說) | tīng shuō | to hear (sth said); one hears (that) |
| 说法 (說法) | shuō fǎ | to expound Buddhist teachings |
See also: Japanese symbol for “say”.
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.