The Chinese symbol for heart — 心 (xīn)

Where the character comes from

心 is a picture of a heart: the chambers as the three dots, the aorta as the curving stroke. It is one of the clearest surviving pictographs in the script.

How it is actually used

小心 is 'be careful' (literally small-heart), 开心 is happy, 担心 is to worry, 中心 is a centre, 心情 is mood, and 用心 is to apply yourself. Note how few of those are romantic.

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.

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

What is the Chinese symbol for heart?

心 (xīn) is the heart — the organ, and the seat of both feeling and thought. That second half is the part English speakers miss: Chinese locates thinking in the heart, so 心 covers mind and intention as much as emotion, which is why psychology is 心理学. It is written 心 and pronounced xīn.

What does 心 not mean?

It does not mean love — that is 爱, or 爱心 for a caring heart. And it is not exclusively emotional: 决心 is determination, 心里想 is 'thought to oneself'.

Is 心 commonly mistranslated?

Yes. The claim you will meet most often is: "心 is the romantic heart." The two commonest words built on it are 小心 (careful) and 担心 (worried). Romance is a small corner of what the character does. This page lists 2 such claims about 心 with what is true instead.

Is 心 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?

心 is the same in simplified and traditional Chinese, four strokes. Its combining form 忄, the 'heart on the side', is radical 61 and turns up in dozens of emotion characters — 情, 快, 忙, 怕, 慢. If you learn one component from this page, learn that one.

What else can I use for heart in Chinese?

Depending on what you mean: 爱心, 情, 意. This page explains when each one is the right choice, and 心 itself lives in words such as 小心, 开心, 中心.