Chinese symbol for “tears”
泪
lèi
Traditional: 淚
(bound form) tears; teardrops
The closest CC-CEDICT match for tears is 泪 (lèi), defined as: (bound form) tears; teardrops.
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 “tears”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 泪液 (淚液) | lèi yè | tears; teardrops |
| 涕 | tì | tears; nasal mucus |
| 泪水 (淚水) | lèi shuǐ | teardrop; tears |
| 泪点 (淚點) | lèi diǎn | (anatomy) lacrimal punctum; (literary) tears |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 泪.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 眼泪 (眼淚) | yǎn lèi | tear; teardrop; measure word: 滴 (dī) |
| 泪水 (淚水) | lèi shuǐ | teardrop; tears |
| 流泪 (流淚) | liú lèi | to shed tears |
| 落泪 (落淚) | luò lèi | to shed tears; to weep |
| 催泪弹 (催淚彈) | cuī lèi dàn | tear bomb; tear-gas grenade |
| 含泪 (含淚) | hán lèi | tearful; tearfully |
See also: Japanese symbol for “tears”.
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.