兄
Symbols Relationships
brother
ㄒㄩㄥ xiōng
Two versions of the same picture, and both are free with no account and no watermark. The first has no background at all, which is the one to send your artist — but a phone or computer photo viewer set to dark will show black strokes on dark grey and it can look like nothing downloaded. If that happens, use the second one: identical characters on a plain white background. Either way you get the characters on their own — the square and the faint guide lines you see above are not in the file. Each character is 1000px, so a two-character download is 2000×1000, and the script and layout are the ones you picked.
Script
Characters
Same in both
Layout
Rubbing mode: white on black, as a stone rubbing. The download is unaffected.
Chinese makes you choose. There is no neutral single word for brother: you say elder or younger, and the choice cannot be dodged.
Before you commit
Choose with care兄 and 弟 are not interchangeable. Wearing 弟 says you are the younger one and 兄 says you are the elder, so pick the one that is true.
Cultural note兄 is also used for unrelated older men, as in 老兄 or 師兄, an elder fellow student. It marks seniority as much as blood.
At small sizesFive strokes, a mouth over two legs. Simple, open and very legible small or on a curve.
Meaning
Elder brother.
The formal written word for an older brother, respectful in tone.
Other characters for “brother”
What to do next
Pick the script and layout you want above, download the PNG, and send that file to your artist. Ask them to work from the file rather than redrawing the character freehand — that is where strokes go missing.
Related concepts