King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “cavern”

山洞
shān dòng
cavern; cave

The closest CC-CEDICT match for cavern is 山洞 (shān dòng), defined as: cavern; cave.

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

山 shān
mountain, hill, peak
radical 46 ⼭ · 3 strokes
洞 dòng
cave, grotto, hole, ravine
radical 85 ⽔ · 9 strokes

Other Chinese words for “cavern”

WordPinyinMeaning
洞穴dòng xuécave; cavern
石洞shí dòngcave; cavern
峇kècave; cavern
峒dòngcave; cavern

Related words

Other words that share a character with 山洞.

WordPinyinMeaning
山区 (山區)shān qūmountain area; 个 (gè)
火山huǒ shānvolcano
山脉 (山脈)shān màimountain range; 条 (tiáo)
山地shān dìmountainous region; hilly area
山寨shān zhàifortified hill village; mountain stronghold (esp. of bandits)
山顶 (山頂)shān dǐnghilltop
漏洞lòu dòngleak; hole
洞穴dòng xuécave; cavern

See also: Japanese symbol for “cavern”.

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.