King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “creature”

Romaji: seibutsu
living thing; organism; creature; life

In Japanese, creature is , read (seibutsu).

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.

Meanings

  1. n living thing; organism; creature; life
  2. n biology

Kanji and stroke order

life, genuine, birth
on: セイ、ショウ
kun: い.きる、い.かす、い.ける、う.まれる
5 strokes · JLPT 4
thing, object, matter
on: ブツ、モツ
kun: もの、もの-
8 strokes · JLPT 3

Other Japanese words for “creature”

WordReadingMeaning
クリーチャー kuriichaacreature
そうぞうぶつ souzoubutsucreature; creation
ひぞうぶつ hizoubutsusomething created (e.g. by the gods); creature

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
せいかつ seikatsulife; living
せんせい senseiteacher; instructor; master
じんせい jinsei(one's) life
がくせい gakuseistudent (esp. a university student)
はっせい hasseioccurrence; incidence; outbreak
たんじょう tanjoubirth (of a person); nativity
どうぶつ doubutsuanimal
じんぶつ jinbutsuperson; character; figure

See also: Chinese symbol for “creature”.

Data: JMdict (CC BY-SA 4.0); KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.