King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “wailing”

Romaji: goukyuu
crying loudly; bawling; wailing; lamentation

In Japanese, wailing is , read (goukyuu).

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, vi, vs crying loudly; bawling; wailing; lamentation
  2. n, vi, vs crying one's eyes out (without making noise); breaking into a flood of tears; crying buckets; weeping

Kanji and stroke order

nickname, number, item
on: ゴウ
kun: さけ.ぶ、よびな
5 strokes · JLPT 2
cry, weep, moan
on: キュウ
kun: な.く
8 strokes · JLPT 2

Other Japanese words for “wailing”

WordReadingMeaning
どうこく doukokuwailing; lamentation
コクソン kokusonThe Wailing (2016 South Korean horror film)
こくどう kokudouwailing; lamentation
ごうこく goukokuwailing; crying loudly
オギャー ogyaawhaaa; wah-wah; crying (of a newborn)

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
ばんごう bangounumber; series of digits
しんごう shingousignal; signalling; signaling
きごう kigousign; symbol; mark
あんごう angoucode; password; cipher
げんごう gengouname of an imperial era (e.g. Heisei, Shōwa); Japanese era name
なき nakiweeping; lamenting
なきごえ nakigoecry (e.g. of a baby); sob; whine
なく nakuto cry; to shed tears; to weep

See also: Chinese symbol for “wailing”.

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.

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