What 诉 means
It can mean telling, complaining, or making an accusation.
In modern Chinese, 诉 appears in compounds: 诉苦 is telling someone about hardship, 诉说 is relating something, often with feeling, and 起诉 is bringing a lawsuit. The bare character does not settle which sense is intended; read the full word.
An old Chinese lexicographic tradition connects the traditional form 訴 with accusation and cites the Analects, a classic collection of sayings associated with Confucius.
Don't confuse it with
1Combination ideas
3Telling someone about hardship or a grievance.
Relating something, often with feeling.
Bringing a lawsuit; formal legal action.
Questions people ask
1Why does 诉 show as a box on some devices?
Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.
How to type 诉
Windows (Word)
Alt+XType 8BC9, then Alt+X to get 诉.
Windows
Win+Rrun charmap for the full table, or use the emoji picker's Ω symbols tab (Win + .).
macOS
Control+Command+SpaceOpen the character viewer and search “cjk unified ideograph-8bc9”.
Linux
Ctrl+Shift+UType 8bc9, then Enter or Space.
HTML
诉CSS
\8BC9Chinese pinyin input for 诉
With a Chinese pinyin input method in simplified mode, type su and select 诉. su4 marks the fourth tone; whether an input method accepts tone numbers depends on the method.
Codes and encoding1 code points
HTML decimal
诉
HTML hex
诉
CSS content
content: "\8BC9";
Each escape is closed by the next backslash; a trailing space is needed before a literal hex digit.
URL encoded
%E8%AF%89
1
On screen
1
Code points
1
JS .length
3
UTF-8 bytes
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.