Japanese symbol for “living”
生き
いき
Romaji: iki
living; being alive
In Japanese, living is 生き, read いき (iki).
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
- n living; being alive
- n freshness; liveliness; vitality
- n situation in which a group of stones cannot be captured because it contains two or more gaps (go)
- n stet (proofreading); leave as-is
- pref damned
Written forms: 生き、活き. Readings: いき、イキ.
Kanji and stroke order
Other Japanese words for “living”
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 生活 | せいかつ seikatsu | life; living |
| 暮らし | くらし kurashi | (way of) life; lifestyle; living |
| 居住 | きょじゅう kyojuu | residence; living (at, in); abode |
| 在住 | ざいじゅう zaijuu | residing; living; dwelling |
| 在留 | ざいりゅう zairyuu | residing (esp. abroad); staying; living |
Related words
Words that share a kanji.
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 生活 | せいかつ seikatsu | life; living |
| 先生 | せんせい sensei | teacher; instructor; master |
| 人生 | じんせい jinsei | (one's) life |
| 学生 | がくせい gakusei | student (esp. a university student) |
| 発生 | はっせい hassei | occurrence; incidence; outbreak |
| 誕生 | たんじょう tanjou | birth (of a person); nativity |
See also: Chinese symbol for “living”.
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.