King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “tear”

眼泪
yǎn lèi
Traditional: 眼淚
tear; teardrop; measure word: 滴 (dī)

The closest CC-CEDICT match for tear is 眼泪 (yǎn lèi), defined as: tear; teardrop; measure word: 滴 (dī).

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

眼 yǎn
eyelet, hole, opening
radical 109 ⽬ · 11 strokes
泪 lèi
tears; to cry, to weep
radical 85 ⽔ · 8 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “tear”

WordPinyinMeaning
撕sīto tear
撕裂sī lièto tear; to rip apart
撕破sī pòto tear; to rip
扯chěto pull; to tear
捩liètear; twist

Related words

Other words that share a character with 眼泪.

WordPinyinMeaning
眼睛yǎn jingeye; 只 (zhī),双 (shuāng)
眼前yǎn qiánbefore one's eyes; now
眼中yǎn zhōngin (sb's) eyes
眼镜 (眼鏡)yǎn jìngspectacles; eyeglasses
眼光yǎn guānggaze; insight
泪水 (淚水)lèi shuǐteardrop; tears
流泪 (流淚)liú lèito shed tears
落泪 (落淚)luò lèito shed tears; to weep

See also: Japanese symbol for “tear”.

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.

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