Chinese symbol for “sour”
酸
suān
sour; tart; sick at heart; grieved
The closest CC-CEDICT match for sour is 酸 (suān), defined as: sour; tart; sick at heart; grieved; sore; aching.
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 “sour”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 酸涩 (酸澀) | suān sè | sour; acrid |
| 酸溜溜 | suān liū liū | sour; acid |
| 沙瓦 | shā wǎ | a sour (type of cocktail) (loanword) |
| 酸不溜丢 (酸不溜丟) | suān bu liū diū | sour; acrid |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 酸.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 氨基酸 | ān jī suān | amino acid |
| 酸性 | suān xìng | acidity |
| 硫酸 | liú suān | sulfuric acid |
| 酸奶 | suān nǎi | yogurt |
| 核酸 | hé suān | nucleic acid; (coll.) nucleic acid test (abbr. for 核酸检测 (hé suān jiǎn cè)) |
| 硝酸 | xiāo suān | nitric acid |
See also: Japanese symbol for “sour”.
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.