King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “sorry”

抱歉
bào qiàn
to be sorry; to feel apologetic; sorry!

The closest CC-CEDICT match for sorry is 抱歉 (bào qiàn), defined as: to be sorry; to feel apologetic; sorry!.

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

抱 bào
to embrace, to hold in one's arms; to enfold
radical 64 ⼿ · 8 strokes
歉 qiàn
deficient, lacking; to apologize, to regret, to be sorry
radical 76 ⽋ · 14 strokes

Other Chinese words for “sorry”

WordPinyinMeaning
骚瑞 (騷瑞)sāo ruì(loanword) sorry
怆 (愴)chuàngmournful; sad

Related words

Other words that share a character with 抱歉.

WordPinyinMeaning
抱怨bào yuànto complain; to grumble
拥抱 (擁抱)yōng bàoto embrace; to hug
怀抱 (懷抱)huái bàoto hug; to cherish
抱负 (抱負)bào fùaspiration; ambition
抱抱bào bàoto hug; to give a cuddle
道歉dào qiànto apologize
致歉zhì qiànto apologize; to express regret
歉意qiàn yìapology; regret

See also: Japanese symbol for “sorry”.

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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