King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “tongue”

舌头
shé tou
Traditional: 舌頭
tongue; 个 (gè); enemy soldier captured for the purpose of extracting information

The closest CC-CEDICT match for tongue is 舌头 (shé tou), defined as: tongue; 个 (gè); enemy soldier captured for the purpose of extracting information.

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

舌 shé
tongue; bell clapper
radical 135 ⾆ · 6 strokes
头 tou
head; chief, boss; first, top
radical 37 ⼤ · 5 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “tongue”

WordPinyinMeaning
舌shétongue
脷lì(cattle) tongue (Cantonese)
口条 (口條)kǒu tiáo(ox etc) tongue (as food); (dialect) elocution; articulation

Related words

Other words that share a character with 舌头.

WordPinyinMeaning
饶舌 (饒舌)ráo shétalkative; to blather
喉舌hóu shémouthpiece; spokesperson
瞠目结舌 (瞠目結舌)chēng mù jié shé(idiom) dumbfounded; flabbergasted; stunned
口舌kǒu shédispute or misunderstanding caused by gossip; to talk sb round
舌尖shé jiāntip of tongue; apical
头发 (頭髮)tóu fahair (on the head)
街头 (街頭)jiē tóustreet
镜头 (鏡頭)jìng tóucamera lens; camera shot (in a movie etc)

See also: Japanese symbol for “tongue”.

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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