King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “solemn”

严肃
yán sù
Traditional: 嚴肅
(of an atmosphere etc) solemn; grave; serious; (of a manner etc) earnest; severe; exacting; to strictly enforce

The closest CC-CEDICT match for solemn is 严肃 (yán sù), defined as: (of an atmosphere etc) solemn; grave; serious; (of a manner etc) earnest; severe; exacting; to strictly enforce.

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

严 yán
strict, rigorous, rigid; stern
radical 1 ⼀ · 7 strokes
肃 sù
to pay respects; solemn, reverent
radical 129 ⾀ · 8 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “solemn”

WordPinyinMeaning
穆mùsolemn; reverent
庄严 (莊嚴)zhuāng yánsolemn; dignified; stately
像模像样 (像模像樣)xiàng mú xiàng yàngsolemn; presentable
岸然àn ránsolemn; serious
板板bǎn bǎnsolemn

Related words

Other words that share a character with 严肃.

WordPinyinMeaning
严重 (嚴重)yán zhònggrave; serious; severe; critical
严格 (嚴格)yán géstrict; stringent; tight; rigorous
尊严 (尊嚴)zūn yándignity; sanctity
严厉 (嚴厲)yán lìsevere; strict
严峻 (嚴峻)yán jùngrim; severe
肃清 (肅清)sù qīngto purge
整肃 (整肅)zhěng sùstrict; serious
肃静 (肅靜)sù jìngsolemnly silent

See also: Japanese symbol for “solemn”.

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.

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