Chinese symbol for “starve”
饿
è
Traditional: 餓
hungry; to starve (sb)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for starve is 饿 (è), defined as: hungry; to starve (sb).
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 “starve”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 饿.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 饥饿 (飢餓) | jī è | hunger; starvation |
| 饿死 (餓死) | è sǐ | to starve to death; to be very hungry |
| 挨饿 (挨餓) | ái è | to go hungry; to endure starvation |
| 饿肚子 (餓肚子) | è dù zi | to go hungry; to starve |
| 饿鬼 (餓鬼) | è guǐ | sb who is always hungry; glutton |
| 饿殍 (餓殍) | è piǎo | starving people |
See also: Japanese symbol for “starve”.
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.