Chinese symbol for “barbarian”
蛮
mán
Traditional: 蠻
barbarian; bullying; very; quite
The closest CC-CEDICT match for barbarian is 蛮 (mán), defined as: barbarian; bullying; very; quite; rough; reckless.
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
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “barbarian”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 蛮子 (蠻子) | mán zi | barbarian; slave servant |
| 番 | fān | (bound form) foreign (non-Chinese); barbarian; classifier for processes or actions that take time and effort |
| 生番 | shēng fān | barbarian; aboriginal savage |
| 胡人 | hú rén | ethnic groups in the north and west of China in ancient times; foreigner |
| 野蛮人 (野蠻人) | yě mán rén | barbarian |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 蛮.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 野蛮 (野蠻) | yě mán | barbarous; uncivilized |
| 蛮横 (蠻橫) | mán hèng | rude and unreasonable |
| 蛮子 (蠻子) | mán zi | barbarian; slave servant |
| 蛮荒 (蠻荒) | mán huāng | savage; wild |
| 胡搅蛮缠 (胡攪蠻纏) | hú jiǎo mán chán | (idiom) to pester endlessly |
| 刁蛮 (刁蠻) | diāo mán | crafty and unruly |
See also: Japanese symbol for “barbarian”.
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.