The Chinese symbol for peace — 安 (ān)
安 (ān) is peace in the sense of being safe and settled — no danger, no anxiety. It is not peace as the opposite of war: that is 和平 (hépíng), and no treaty in Chinese history was ever called a 安条约.
At a glance
- Character
- 安 full dictionary entry
- Pinyin
- ān
- Literal meaning
- Safe; settled; at ease
- Dictionary senses
- Peaceful (safe - quiet - calm - satisfied - to fix) From the same dictionary as our translator.
Stroke order
What 安 means
Where the character comes from
安 is 女 (a woman) written under 宀 (a roof). A person at home and out of danger. It is one of the compounds whose logic survives intact into the modern shape.
How it is actually used
平安 is safe and sound, 安全 is safety or security, 安静 is quiet, 安心 is to set your mind at rest, 不安 is uneasy, and 安排 is to arrange — because settling things is what you do to make them safe.
What 安 does not mean
It does not mean political peace, and it does not mean inner peace as a spiritual attainment. 安心 is the closest, and it means 'stop worrying' rather than 'be enlightened'.
Claims you will meet elsewhere
"安 means peace, as in world peace."
和平 is that peace. 安 is personal and situational: safe, undisturbed, not anxious.
"安 means tranquility."
Close, but 安静 is quiet and 宁静 is tranquil. 安 on its own is more about the absence of threat than about stillness.
"The woman under the roof means a woman's place is at home."
A reading imposed on the character much later than the character. The compound is old enough that its social interpretation has changed repeatedly; the shape itself just shows a person sheltered.
For the general version of this problem — why a machine translation of a single word so often reads as confident nonsense — see Why AI Translators Guess.
The character in different scripts
简体
繁體
安 is identical in both scripts, six strokes. Along with 家 and 富 it shares the 宀 roof radical, so the three make a visually coherent group — useful if more than one of these concepts is being rendered together.
The words 安 lives in
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.
Other ways to say peace
安 is one answer, not the answer. Which of these is right depends on what you mean by "peace" — and that is usually the question worth settling before anything is written down permanently.
安 — frequently asked questions
What is the Chinese symbol for peace?
安 (ān) is peace in the sense of being safe and settled — no danger, no anxiety. It is not peace as the opposite of war: that is 和平 (hépíng), and no treaty in Chinese history was ever called a 安条约. It is written 安 and pronounced ān.
What does 安 not mean?
It does not mean political peace, and it does not mean inner peace as a spiritual attainment. 安心 is the closest, and it means 'stop worrying' rather than 'be enlightened'.
Is 安 commonly mistranslated?
Yes. The claim you will meet most often is: "安 means peace, as in world peace." 和平 is that peace. 安 is personal and situational: safe, undisturbed, not anxious. This page lists 3 such claims about 安 with what is true instead.
Is 安 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
安 is identical in both scripts, six strokes. Along with 家 and 富 it shares the 宀 roof radical, so the three make a visually coherent group — useful if more than one of these concepts is being rendered together.
What else can I use for peace in Chinese?
Depending on what you mean: 和平, 宁, 静. This page explains when each one is the right choice, and 安 itself lives in words such as 平安, 安全, 安静.
Concepts that get confused with this one
Keep going
Check any wording of your own in the Chinese to English translator before it goes anywhere permanent, look 安 up in full in the dictionary, learn the components it is built from in the Chinese Radicals guide, see it used in real sentences in the example sentence bank, or read Why AI Translators Guess for why single-word translation is the hardest kind.