King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “virulent”

厉害
lì hai
Traditional: 厲害
(used to describe sb or sth that makes a very strong impression, whether favorable or unfavorable) terrible; intense; severe; devastating; amazing; awesome; outstanding; (of a person) stern; strict; harsh; shrewd; tough; (of an animal) fierce; (of a resemblance) striking

The closest CC-CEDICT match for virulent is 厉害 (lì hai), defined as: (used to describe sb or sth that makes a very strong impression, whether favorable or unfavorable) terrible; intense; severe; devastating; amazing; awesome; outstanding; (of a person) stern; strict; harsh; shrewd; tough; (of an animal) fierce; (of a resemblance) striking; (of liquor or chili pepper) strong; (of bacteria) virulent.

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

厉 lì
whetstone; to grind, to sharpen, to whet
radical 27 ⼚ · 5 strokes
害 hai
to injure, to harm; to destroy, to kill
radical 40 ⼧ · 10 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “virulent”

WordPinyinMeaning
烈性liè xìngstrong; intense; spirited; virulent

Related words

Other words that share a character with 厉害.

WordPinyinMeaning
严厉 (嚴厲)yán lìsevere; strict
再接再厉 (再接再厲)zài jiē zài lìto continue the struggle (idiom); to persist; unremitting efforts
变本加厉 (變本加厲)biàn běn jiā lìlit. change to more severe (idiom); to become more intense (esp. of shortcoming); to aggravate
严厉批评 (嚴厲批評)yán lì pī píngto criticize severely; to slate
凌厉 (凌厲)líng lìswift and fierce; fierce
伤害 (傷害)shāng hàito injure; to harm
害怕hài pàto be afraid; to be scared
受害者shòu hài zhěcasualty; victim

See also: Japanese symbol for “virulent”.

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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