King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “arugula”

芝麻菜
zhī ma cài
(botany) arugula; rocket; roquette (subspecies Eruca vesicaria sativa)

The closest CC-CEDICT match for arugula is 芝麻菜 (zhī ma cài), defined as: (botany) arugula; rocket; roquette (subspecies Eruca vesicaria sativa).

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

芝 zhī
sesame; a magical mushroom
radical 140 ⾋ · 6 strokes
麻 ma
hemp, flax, sesame; numb
radical 200 ⿇ · 11 strokes
菜 cài
vegetables; order, dish; food
radical 140 ⾋ · 12 strokes

Related words

Other words that share a character with 芝麻菜.

WordPinyinMeaning
芝麻zhī masesame (seed)
芝士zhī shì(loanword) cheese
灵芝 (靈芝)líng zhīlingzhi or reishi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum)
芝麻油zhī ma yóusesame oil
芝麻官zhī ma guānlow ranking official; petty bureaucrat
芝麻酱 (芝麻醬)zhī ma jiàngsesame paste
麻烦 (麻煩)má fantrouble; inconvenience; inconvenient; troublesome; annoying
大麻dà máhemp (Cannabis sativa); cannabis
蔬菜shū càivegetables

See also: Japanese symbol for “arugula”.

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.