凶

• Divinatory/Fatalistic: Ominous, unlucky, or disastrous; the polar opposite of 吉 (jí), denoting a trajectory toward calamity.
• Event-based: A dire event, catastrophe, misfortune, or specifically a murder.
• Moral/Legal: Internal malice, fierce, violent, wicked, or referring to a culprit.

• Adjective: "Ominous," "fierce," or "dire."
• Noun: "Calamity," "disaster," or (in legal contexts) "culprit."
• Modifier: Used to characterize a noun associated with disaster or violence.

In later texts, a distinction is often made where 兇 refers specifically to human violence/malice and 凶 refers to cosmic misfortune/omens. In early (Pre-Qin) texts, these glyphs are generally interchangeable.

Variant: U+342B (graphical variant with no change in meaning).

Avoid rendering 凶 as a state of sadness; while some glossaries list "sad," this is an emotional consequence of the glyph's meaning rather than the meaning itself. Use 悲 or 哀 for sadness, and treat 凶 as the cause of that distress.