King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “undercurrent”

暗流
àn liú
undercurrent

The closest CC-CEDICT match for undercurrent is 暗流 (àn liú), defined as: undercurrent.

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

暗 àn
dark, gloomy; obscure; secret, covert
radical 72 ⽇ · 13 strokes
流 liú
to flow, to drift, to circulate; class
radical 85 ⽔ · 10 strokes

Other Chinese words for “undercurrent”

WordPinyinMeaning
暗潮àn cháoundercurrent

Related words

Other words that share a character with 暗流.

WordPinyinMeaning
黑暗hēi àndark; darkly
暗示àn shìto hint; to suggest; hint; suggestion
暗杀 (暗殺)àn shāto assassinate
暗中àn zhōngin the dark; in secret
阴暗 (陰暗)yīn àndim; dark
暗号 (暗號)àn hàosecret signal; password; countersign
交流jiāo liúto exchange; exchange
流行liú xíng(of a contagious disease etc) to spread; to propagate; (of a style of clothing, song etc) popular; fashionable

See also: Japanese symbol for “undercurrent”.

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.