Chinese character for tiger: 虎 (hǔ)

The Chinese character for tiger is 虎 (hǔ). It means tiger and is the third animal of the Chinese zodiac. It appears in 老虎 (lǎohǔ, tiger) and 虎年 (hǔ nián, Year of the Tiger). The tiger is a symbol of courage and power.

How 虎 is built

虎 is a pictograph of a tiger. The top part 虍 is the tiger's head and stripes, and it appears in other characters linked to tigers, such as 虐 (cruel). The bottom 几 represents the legs. Ancient forms showed a tall, standing tiger with an open mouth and stripes. It is identical in simplified and traditional Chinese.

虎 hǔ · tiger

• 虍hū — tiger
  • 七qī — seven
    • 一 — horizontal stroke
    • 乚 — hook stroke
• 几jǐ — small table
  • 丿 — falling stroke
  • 乙yǐ — second

How 虎 is used

Before you use it as a tattoo or design: 虎 is identical in both scripts and is a bold single-character design; 老虎 is the everyday spoken word.

Questions

Related

• 龙dragon
• 勇courage
• 牛ox
• 兔rabbit
• 力strength

Full page for 虎 › All characters for words