Chinese symbol for “basil”

九层塔

jiǔ céng tǎ

Traditional: 九層塔

basil

The closest CC-CEDICT match for basil is 九层塔 (jiǔ céng tǎ), defined as: basil.

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

九 jiǔ

nine

radical 5 ⼄ · 2 strokes

层 céng

layer, floor, story, stratum

radical 44 ⼫ · 7 strokes

塔 tǎ

tower, spire, tall building

radical 32 ⼟ · 12 strokes

Traditional forms

層 céng

Related words

Other words that share a character with 九层塔.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
十九	shí jiǔ	nineteen; 19
九天	jiǔ tiān	the ninth heaven; the highest of the heavens
九十	jiǔ shí	ninety
九成	jiǔ chéng	nine-tenths; ninety percent
九月份	jiǔ yuè fèn	September
十有八九	shí yǒu bā jiǔ	most likely; mostly (in 8 or 9 cases out of 10)
基层 (基層)	jī céng	basic level; grassroots unit
层面 (層面)	céng miàn	aspect; facet; level (political, psychological, spiritual etc)
金字塔	jīn zì tǎ	pyramid (building or structure)

See also: Japanese symbol for “basil”.

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.