Chinese symbol for “sorrow”
哀
āi
(bound form) sorrow; grief; pity; (bound form) to grieve for; to pity; to lament; to condole
The closest CC-CEDICT match for sorrow is 哀 (āi), defined as: (bound form) sorrow; grief; pity; (bound form) to grieve for; to pity; to lament; to condole.
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 “sorrow”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 哀愁 | āi chóu | sorrow; sadness; distressed; sorrowful |
| 悲怆 (悲愴) | bēi chuàng | sorrow; tragic |
| 哀戚 | āi qī | sorrow; grief |
| 痛 | tòng | ache; pain |
| 忧 (憂) | yōu | to worry; to concern oneself with |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 哀.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 悲哀 | bēi āi | grieved; sorrowful |
| 哀悼 | āi dào | to grieve over sb's death; to lament sb's death |
| 哀伤 (哀傷) | āi shāng | grief; distress; bereavement; grieved; heartbroken; dejected |
| 哀求 | āi qiú | to entreat; to implore |
| 默哀 | mò āi | to observe a moment of silence in tribute |
| 致哀 | zhì āi | to express grief; to mourn |
See also: Japanese symbol for “sorrow”.
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.