Chinese symbol for “startle”
惊
jīng
Traditional: 驚
to startle; to be frightened; to be scared; alarm
The closest CC-CEDICT match for startle is 惊 (jīng), defined as: to startle; to be frightened; to be scared; alarm.
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
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “startle”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 惊动 (驚動) | jīng dòng | to alarm; to startle |
| 骇 (駭) | hài | to astonish; to startle |
| 惊起 (驚起) | jīng qǐ | to give a start; to startle (an animal etc) |
| 咢 | è | beat a drum; startle |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 惊.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 惊人 (驚人) | jīng rén | astonishing |
| 惊讶 (驚訝) | jīng yà | amazed; astonished |
| 惊喜 (驚喜) | jīng xǐ | nice surprise; to be pleasantly surprised |
| 震惊 (震驚) | zhèn jīng | to shock; to astonish |
| 吃惊 (吃驚) | chī jīng | to be startled; to be shocked |
| 惊奇 (驚奇) | jīng qí | to be amazed; to be surprised |
See also: Japanese symbol for “startle”.
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.