The Chinese symbol for faith and trust — 信 (xìn)

Where the character comes from

信 is 亻 (a person) beside 言 (speech): a person standing by what they said. It is one of the cleanest examples in the script of a compound whose meaning really is the sum of its parts.

How it is actually used

相信 is to believe, 信任 is to trust, 信心 is confidence, 信用 is credit (hence 信用卡, credit card), 写信 is to write a letter, and 短信 is a text message.

Both glyphs above are set in whatever Chinese font your device uses, which is a 楷书-derived regular script — the same shape a printer or a tattoo studio's "Chinese font" will produce. Brush styles (行书 running, 草书 cursive, 篆书 seal) look substantially different and are worth commissioning from a calligrapher rather than approximating from a font. You can watch this character written stroke by stroke in the Stroke Order Animator or practise it on printable 田字格 sheets.

This is the part a symbol list leaves out, and it is the fastest way to feel what a character actually carries. Readings and meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the translator; tap any word for its full dictionary entry.

信 is one answer, not the answer. Which of these is right depends on what you mean by "faith and trust" — and that is usually the question worth settling before anything is written down permanently.

What is the Chinese symbol for faith and trust?

信 (xìn) is trust — both trusting and being trustworthy — and it is also the ordinary word for a letter you put in an envelope. Religious faith is 信仰 (xìnyǎng), not 信 on its own. It is written 信 and pronounced xìn.

What does 信 not mean?

It does not mean religious faith by itself, and it does not mean loyalty. 信仰 is a creed or conviction; 忠 is loyalty. 信 is about reliability — of a person, a report or a promise.

Is 信 commonly mistranslated?

Yes. The claim you will meet most often is: "信 means faith." 信仰 means faith in the religious sense. A lone 信 reads as 'trust' — or, to plenty of readers, as 'letter'. This page lists 2 such claims about 信 with what is true instead.

Is 信 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?

信 is the same in both scripts, nine strokes. The person radical on the left and the speech radical on the right make it a visually balanced character that reads clearly even when small.

What else can I use for faith and trust in Chinese?

Depending on what you mean: 信仰, 诚, 信念. This page explains when each one is the right choice, and 信 itself lives in words such as 相信, 信心, 信任.