Chinese Tattoo 赢: Meaning, Strokes & Design Guide
The character 赢 means "win; surplus, gain, profit" and is pronounced yíng. Below: its structure, the words it appears in, and how it works as a tattoo.
Quick facts
| Character | 赢 |
| Pinyin | yíng |
| Meaning | win; surplus, gain, profit |
| Strokes | 17 |
| Radical | ⾙ (No. 154) |
| HSK level | newest-4 |
Words that contain 赢
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 赢得 | yíng dé | to win | newest-4 |
| 赢家 | yíng jiā | winner | newest-7 |
| 双赢 | shuāng yíng | profitable to both sides | newest-7 |
| 共赢 | gong4 ying2 | mutually profitable | — |
| 打赢 | da3 ying2 | to win; to beat (one's opponent) | — |
| 赢利 | ying2 li4 | gain | — |
Words and levels: HSK vocabulary list · meanings: CC-CEDICT.
Characters sharing the ⾙ radical
All of these share the ⾙ radical, so they are visually related — useful when you compare designs.
Placing 赢
赢 runs to 17 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 赢
赢 appears both on its own and inside compounds, so the sense depends on context; here it reads “win; surplus, gain, profit”. 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 赢 mean?
赢 (yíng) means “win; surplus, gain, profit”.
How is 赢 pronounced?
赢 is pronounced yíng in Mandarin.
How many strokes does 赢 have?
赢 has 17 strokes, under the ⾙ radical (No. 154).
How large should a 赢 tattoo be?
With 17 strokes, 赢 is moderately dense — it stays legible from roughly 4–5 cm upward. Shrinking it below that risks the strokes merging.
Which style works for 赢?
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 赢 common in modern Chinese?
Yes — 赢 appears as a standalone HSK vocabulary item (newest-4), and in everyday words such as 赢得、赢家、双赢.
Should I use simplified or traditional 赢?
赢 is written the same in simplified and traditional Chinese, so there is no form to choose.
Want 赢 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