Chinese symbol for “teacher”
先生
xiān sheng
teacher; gentleman; sir; mister (Mr.); husband; (dialect) doctor
The closest CC-CEDICT match for teacher is 先生 (xiān sheng), defined as: teacher; gentleman; sir; mister (Mr.); husband; (dialect) doctor; measure word: 位 (wèi).
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 “teacher”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 老师 (老師) | lǎo shī | teacher |
| 教师 (教師) | jiào shī | teacher; 个 (gè) |
| 师 (師) | shī | teacher; master |
| 教员 (教員) | jiào yuán | teacher; instructor |
| 恩师 (恩師) | ēn shī | (greatly respected) teacher |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 先生.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 首先 | shǒu xiān | first of all; in the first place |
| 先进 (先進) | xiān jìn | sophisticated; advanced (technology etc); meritorious; exemplary (deeds etc) |
| 先后 (先後) | xiān hòu | early or late; first and last; priority; in succession; one after another |
| 优先 (優先) | yōu xiān | to have priority; to take precedence |
| 领先 (領先) | lǐng xiān | to lead; to be in front |
| 发生 (發生) | fā shēng | to happen; to occur; to take place; to arise (e.g. 发生问题 (fā shēng wèn tí) "a problem arises") |
| 生活 | shēng huó | to live; life |
| 学生 (學生) | xué sheng | student; schoolchild |
See also: Japanese symbol for “teacher”.
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.