King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “thunderbird”

雷鸟
léi niǎo
Traditional: 雷鳥
capercaillie (Lagopus, several species); thunderbird (in native American mythology)

The closest CC-CEDICT match for thunderbird is 雷鸟 (léi niǎo), defined as: capercaillie (Lagopus, several species); thunderbird (in native American mythology).

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

雷 léi
thunder; surname
radical 173 ⾬ · 13 strokes
鸟 niǎo
bird
radical 196 ⿃ · 5 strokes

Traditional forms

Related words

Other words that share a character with 雷鸟.

WordPinyinMeaning
雷达 (雷達)léi dá(loanword) radar
布雷 (佈雷)bù léito lay mines
鱼雷 (魚雷)yú léitorpedo
地雷dì léiland mine (颗 (kē)); (fig.) sore point; weak spot
迅雷xùn léithunderbolt
雷霆léi tíngsound of thunder
鸟类 (鳥類)niǎo lèibirds
小鸟 (小鳥)xiǎo niǎosmall bird; young bird (hatchling, nestling, fledgling, chick)

See also: Japanese symbol for “thunderbird”.

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.