Chinese symbol for “drill”
钻
zuān
Traditional: 鑽
to drill; to bore; to get into; to make one's way into
The closest CC-CEDICT match for drill is 钻 (zuān), defined as: to drill; to bore; to get into; to make one's way into; to enter (a hole); to thread one's way through.
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 “drill”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 演习 (演習) | yǎn xí | (military, firefighting etc) (verb and noun) drill; exercise; maneuver |
| 演练 (演練) | yǎn liàn | to drill; to practice |
| 钻井 (鑽井) | zuān jǐng | to drill (e.g. for oil); a borehole |
| 操练 (操練) | cāo liàn | drill; practice |
| 操演 | cāo yǎn | drill; exercise |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 钻.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 钻石 (鑽石) | zuàn shí | diamond; 颗 (kē) |
| 钻研 (鑽研) | zuān yán | to study meticulously; to delve into |
| 钻进 (鑽進) | zuān jìn | to get into; to dig into (studies, job etc) |
| 钻探 (鑽探) | zuān tàn | to conduct exploratory drilling |
| 钻井 (鑽井) | zuān jǐng | to drill (e.g. for oil); a borehole |
| 钻戒 (鑽戒) | zuàn jiè | diamond ring; 只 (zhī) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “drill”.
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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