Chinese symbol for “sprout”
萌
méng
(bound form) to sprout; to bud; (coll.) cute; adorable (orthographic borrowing from Japanese 萌え "moe", affection for an anime or manga character); variant of 氓 (méng)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for sprout is 萌 (méng), defined as: (bound form) to sprout; to bud; (coll.) cute; adorable (orthographic borrowing from Japanese 萌え "moe", affection for an anime or manga character); variant of 氓 (méng).
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 “sprout”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 长出 (長出) | zhǎng chū | to sprout (leaves, buds, a beard etc) |
| 萌发 (萌發) | méng fā | to sprout; to shoot |
| 萌动 (萌動) | méng dòng | to sprout; (fig.) to emerge |
| 出苗 | chū miáo | to sprout; to come out (of seedling) |
| 抽 | chōu | to draw out; to pull out from in between; to remove part of the whole |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 萌.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 萌芽 | méng yá | (of a seed) to germinate; (of a plant) to sprout; to bud |
| 萌生 | méng shēng | to burgeon; to produce |
| 萌发 (萌發) | méng fā | to sprout; to shoot |
| 卖萌 (賣萌) | mài méng | (slang) to act cute |
| 萌动 (萌動) | méng dòng | to sprout; (fig.) to emerge |
| 故态复萌 (故態復萌) | gù tài fù méng | to revert to old ways |
See also: Japanese symbol for “sprout”.
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.