Chinese symbol for “scales”
鳞
lín
Traditional: 鱗
scales (of fish, snakes etc)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for scales is 鳞 (lín), defined as: scales (of fish, snakes etc).
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 “scales”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 鳞.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 鳞片 (鱗片) | lín piàn | scale (of fish, reptiles etc) |
| 遍体鳞伤 (遍體鱗傷) | biàn tǐ lín shāng | (idiom) covered all over with cuts and bruises; beaten black and blue |
| 鱼鳞 (魚鱗) | yú lín | fish scales |
| 鳞甲 (鱗甲) | lín jiǎ | scale; plate of armor |
| 鳞翅目 (鱗翅目) | lín chì mù | Lepidoptera (insect order including butterflies 蝶類|蝶类 and moths 蛾類|蛾类) |
| 鳞茎 (鱗莖) | lín jīng | (botany) bulb |
See also: Japanese symbol for “scales”.
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.