Chinese symbol for “throb”

跳动

tiào dòng

Traditional: 跳動

to throb; to pulse; to bounce; to jiggle

The closest CC-CEDICT match for throb is 跳动 (tiào dòng), defined as: to throb; to pulse; to bounce; to jiggle; to jump about.

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

跳 tiào

to hop, to skip; to jump, to leap; to vault; to dance

radical 157 ⾜ · 13 strokes

动 dòng

to move, to happen; movement, action

radical 19 ⼒ · 6 strokes

Traditional forms

動 dòng

Other Chinese words for “throb”

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
悸动 (悸動)	jì dòng	to pound; to throb
搏动 (搏動)	bó dòng	to beat rhythmically; to throb

Related words

Other words that share a character with 跳动.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
跳舞	tiào wǔ	to dance
心跳	xīn tiào	heartbeat; pulse
跳跃 (跳躍)	tiào yuè	to jump; to leap
跳出	tiào chū	to jump out; fig. to appear suddenly
跳水	tiào shuǐ	to dive (into water); (sports) diving
活动 (活動)	huó dòng	to exercise; to move about; to work out; shaky; unsteady; loose (tooth etc)
运动 (運動)	yùn dòng	to move; to exercise
行动 (行動)	xíng dòng	operation; action

See also: Japanese symbol for “throb”.

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.