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
Other Chinese words for “bumpy”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 磕磕绊绊 (磕磕絆絆) | kē ke bàn bàn | bumpy (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 wā | full of pits and hollows; bumpy |
| 疣状 (疣狀) | yóu zhuàng | warty; bumpy |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 坎坷.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 门坎 (門坎) | mén kǎn | variant of 门槛 (mén kǎn) |
| 心坎 | xīn kǎn | bottom of one's heart |
| 坎德拉 | kǎn dé lā | candela (unit of luminosity); standard candle |
| 坎肩 | kǎn jiān | sleeveless jacket (usually cotton); Chinese waistcoat |
| 坎儿 (坎兒) | kǎn r | critical juncture; key moment |
| 坷垃 | kē lā | (dialect) clod (of earth) |
| 坎坷不平 | kǎn kě bù píng | potholed and bumpy road (idiom); fig. full of disappointment and dashed hopes |
| 命途坎坷 | mìng tú kǎn kě | to 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.