Chinese Tattoo 鹤: Meaning, Strokes & Design Guide
The character 鹤 means "crane; Grus species (various)" and is pronounced hè. Below: its structure, the words it appears in, and how it works as a tattoo.
Quick facts
| Character | 鹤 |
| Pinyin | hè |
| Meaning | crane; Grus species (various) |
| Strokes | 15 |
| Radical | ⿃ (No. 196) |
Words that contain 鹤
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 仙鹤 | xiān hè | red-crowned crane (Grus japonensis) | newest-7 |
| 乘鹤 | cheng2 he4 | to fly on a crane | — |
| 火鹤 | huo3 he4 | flamingo lily (Anthurium andraeanum) | — |
| 灰鹤 | hui1 he4 | (bird species of China) common crane (Grus grus) | — |
| 白鹤 | bai2 he4 | (bird species of China) Siberian crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus) | — |
| 纸鹤 | zhi3 he4 | paper crane | — |
Words and levels: HSK vocabulary list · meanings: CC-CEDICT.
Characters sharing the ⿃ radical
All of these share the ⿃ radical, so they are visually related — useful when you compare designs.
Placing 鹤
鹤 runs to 15 strokes, which is dense for a single character. At small sizes the inner strokes close up and the character stops being readable — this one wants a larger placement (upper back, thigh, forearm) rather than a wrist or ankle. Tell your artist the intended size before the stencil is cut, because a design that reads at 8 cm can collapse at 4 cm. Bring the stencil together with the pinyin and the meaning, and ask the artist to follow the stencil rather than redrawing the character freehand — freehand redrawing is the most common way a correct character loses a stroke and becomes a different one.
Design notes for 鹤
鹤 appears both on its own and inside compounds, so the sense depends on context; here it reads “crane; Grus species (various)”. Regular script (楷书) keeps every stroke countable, which matters when a Chinese reader checks it. Avoid mirroring or rotating the character, and avoid very fine or cursive styles at small sizes, where strokes merge into a shape that reads as a different character.
Frequently asked questions
What does 鹤 mean?
鹤 (hè) means “crane; Grus species (various)”.
How is 鹤 pronounced?
鹤 is pronounced hè in Mandarin.
How many strokes does 鹤 have?
鹤 has 15 strokes, under the ⿃ radical (No. 196).
How large should a 鹤 tattoo be?
With 15 strokes, 鹤 is moderately dense — it stays legible from roughly 4–5 cm upward. Shrinking it below that risks the strokes merging.
Which style works for 鹤?
Bold regular script (楷书) keeps the strokes clear. Semi-cursive (行书) adds flow but softens edges. Seal script looks classical but is harder for most readers to verify — use it only if a native reader has confirmed the rendering.
Is 鹤 common in modern Chinese?
It appears in everyday words such as 仙鹤、乘鹤、火鹤, though it is more often used inside compounds than alone.
Should I use simplified or traditional 鹤?
鹤 is written the same in simplified and traditional Chinese, so there is no form to choose.
Want 鹤 as a ready-to-use stencil with a native-checked meaning card, sized for your tattoo artist?
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Character data: Unihan (Unicode) · words: HSK vocabulary & CC-CEDICT · How we verify this