Chinese symbol for “starving”
忍饥挨饿
rěn jī ái è
Traditional: 忍飢挨餓
starving; famished
The closest CC-CEDICT match for starving is 忍饥挨饿 (rěn jī ái è), defined as: starving; famished.
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 “starving”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 馁 (餒) | něi | (bound form) hungry; starving; (bound form) dispirited |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 忍饥挨饿.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 忍不住 | rěn bu zhù | cannot help; unable to bear |
| 残忍 (殘忍) | cán rěn | cruel; merciless; ruthless |
| 忍受 | rěn shòu | to bear; to endure |
| 容忍 | róng rěn | to put up with; to tolerate |
| 忍耐 | rěn nài | to endure; to put up with; to exercise patience |
| 不忍 | bù rěn | cannot bear to |
| 饥饿 (飢餓) | jī è | hunger; starvation |
| 饥荒 (饑荒) | jī huāng | crop failure; famine |
| 挨打 | ái dǎ | to take a beating; to come under attack |
| 饿死 (餓死) | è sǐ | to starve to death; to be very hungry |
See also: Japanese symbol for “starving”.
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.