Chinese symbol for “virtue”
德
dé
virtue; goodness; morality; ethics
The closest CC-CEDICT match for virtue is 德 (dé), defined as: virtue; goodness; morality; ethics; kindness; favor.
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
Other Chinese words for “virtue”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 道德 | dào dé | virtue; morality |
| 美德 | měi dé | virtue |
| 贞操 (貞操) | zhēn cāo | (usually of women) chastity; virginity |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 德.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 道德 | dào dé | virtue; morality |
| 品德 | pǐn dé | moral character |
| 美德 | měi dé | virtue |
| 拉德 | lā dé | rad (unit of absorbed dose of ionizing radiation) (loanword) |
| 德行 | dé xíng | morality and conduct; Taiwan pr. [de2 xing4] |
See also: Japanese symbol for “virtue”.
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.