Chinese symbol for “ancient”
古
gǔ
ancient; old; paleo-
The closest CC-CEDICT match for ancient is 古 (gǔ), defined as: ancient; old; paleo-.
Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.
Characters and stroke order
Other Chinese words for “ancient”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 古.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 古代 | gǔ dài | ancient times |
| 古老 | gǔ lǎo | ancient; old |
| 古典 | gǔ diǎn | classical |
| 考古 | kǎo gǔ | archaeology; to engage in archaeological studies |
| 古城 | gǔ chéng | ancient city |
| 古怪 | gǔ guài | strange; weird |
See also: Japanese symbol for “ancient”.
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.