King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “bumpy”

坎坷
kǎn kě
(of a road) bumpy; (of life) rough; to be down on one's luck; to be full of frustrations and dashed hopes

The closest CC-CEDICT match for bumpy is 坎坷 (kǎn kě), defined as: (of a road) bumpy; (of life) rough; to be down on one's luck; to be full of frustrations and dashed hopes.

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

坎 kǎn
pit, hole; to trap, to snare; crisis
radical 32 ⼟ · 7 strokes
坷 kě
uneven, bumpy; a clod of earth; a lump of soil
radical 32 ⼟ · 8 strokes

Other Chinese words for “bumpy”

WordPinyinMeaning
磕磕绊绊 (磕磕絆絆)kē ke bàn bànbumpy (of a road); limping (of a person)
凹凸不平āo tū bù píng(idiom) uneven (surface); bumpy (road)
坑坑洼洼 (坑坑窪窪)kēng keng wā wāfull of pits and hollows; bumpy
疣状 (疣狀)yóu zhuàngwarty; bumpy

Related words

Other words that share a character with 坎坷.

WordPinyinMeaning
门坎 (門坎)mén kǎnvariant of 门槛 (mén kǎn)
心坎xīn kǎnbottom of one's heart
坎德拉kǎn dé lācandela (unit of luminosity); standard candle
坎肩kǎn jiānsleeveless jacket (usually cotton); Chinese waistcoat
坎儿 (坎兒)kǎn rcritical juncture; key moment
坷垃kē lā(dialect) clod (of earth)
坎坷不平kǎn kě bù píngpotholed and bumpy road (idiom); fig. full of disappointment and dashed hopes
命途坎坷mìng tú kǎn kěto have a tough life; to meet much adversity in one's life

See also: Japanese symbol for “bumpy”.

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.

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