Chinese symbol for “detective”
侦探
zhēn tàn
Traditional: 偵探
detective; to do detective work
The closest CC-CEDICT match for detective is 侦探 (zhēn tàn), defined as: detective; to do detective work.
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 “detective”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 探员 (探員) | tàn yuán | detective; investigator |
| 探长 (探長) | tàn zhǎng | (police) detective |
| 侦察员 (偵察員) | zhēn chá yuán | detective; investigator |
| 密探 | mì tàn | secret agent; detective |
| 包探 | bāo tàn | detective (in former times) |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 侦探.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 侦查 (偵查) | zhēn chá | to detect; to investigate |
| 侦察 (偵察) | zhēn chá | to investigate a crime; to scout |
| 侦测 (偵測) | zhēn cè | to detect; to sense |
| 侦察机 (偵察機) | zhēn chá jī | surveillance aircraft; spy plane |
| 侦破 (偵破) | zhēn pò | to investigate (as detective); to solve (crime) |
| 探索 | tàn suǒ | to explore; to probe |
| 探讨 (探討) | tàn tǎo | to investigate; to probe |
| 探测 (探測) | tàn cè | to probe; to survey |
See also: Japanese symbol for “detective”.
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.