King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “spontaneous”

自发
zì fā
Traditional: 自發
spontaneous

The closest CC-CEDICT match for spontaneous is 自发 (zì fā), defined as: spontaneous.

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

自 zì
self; private, personal; from
radical 132 ⾃ · 6 strokes
发 fā
to issue, to dispatch, to send out; hair
radical 29 ⼜ · 5 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “spontaneous”

WordPinyinMeaning
主动 (主動)zhǔ dòngto take the initiative; to do sth of one's own accord
油然而生yóu rán ér shēngarising involuntarily (idiom); spontaneous; to spring up unbidden (of emotion)

Related words

Other words that share a character with 自发.

WordPinyinMeaning
自己zì jǐoneself; (attributive) one's own
自由zì yóufreedom; liberty; free; unrestricted
来自 (來自)lái zìto come from (a place); From: (in email header)
自然zì ránnature; natural
自动 (自動)zì dòngautomatic; voluntarily
自身zì shēnitself; oneself
发展 (發展)fā zhǎndevelopment; growth
发生 (發生)fā shēngto happen; to occur; to take place; to arise (e.g. 发生问题 (fā shēng wèn tí) "a problem arises")

See also: Japanese symbol for “spontaneous”.

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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