Chinese symbol for “artful”
刁
diāo
artful; wicked
The closest CC-CEDICT match for artful is 刁 (diāo), defined as: artful; wicked.
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 “artful”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 刁滑 | diāo huá | artful; crafty |
| 憸 | xiān | artful; flattering |
| 毚 | chán | cunning; artful |
| 巧诈 (巧詐) | qiǎo zhà | deceitful; crafty |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 刁.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 刁难 (刁難) | diāo nàn | to be hard on sb; to deliberately make things difficult; Taiwan pr. [diao1nan2] |
| 刁蛮 (刁蠻) | diāo mán | crafty and unruly |
| 刁钻 (刁鑽) | diāo zuān | crafty; tricky |
| 刁民 | diāo mín | (derogatory) unruly people |
| 百般刁难 (百般刁難) | bǎi bān diāo nàn | (idiom) to put up innumerable obstacles; to create all kinds of difficulties |
| 刁斗 | diāo dǒu | soldier's copper saucepan, used for cooking food by day and for sounding the night watches during the hours of darkness (in ancient times) |
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.