Japanese symbol for “teething”

生歯

せいし

Romaji: seishi

teething; cutting teeth; dentition

In Japanese, teething is 生歯, read せいし (seishi).

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 teething; cutting teeth; dentition

Kanji and stroke order

生

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

歯

tooth, cog

on: シ
kun: よわい、は、よわ.い、よわい.する

12 strokes · JLPT 2

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
歯科	しか shika	dentistry
歯止め	はどめ hadome	brake; drag; skid

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.