Chinese symbol for “drum”
鼓
gǔ
drum; measure word: 通 (tòng), 面 (miàn); to drum; to strike
The closest CC-CEDICT match for drum is 鼓 (gǔ), defined as: drum; measure word: 通 (tòng), 面 (miàn); to drum; to strike; to rouse; to bulge.
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 “drum”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 滚轮 (滾輪) | gǔn lún | roller; rotating dial |
| 铜鼓 (銅鼓) | tóng gǔ | bronze drum; (Western-style) drum |
| 圆筒 (圓筒) | yuán tǒng | circular cylinder; drum |
| 滚筒 (滾筒) | gǔn tǒng | roller; cylinder (machine part) |
| 壴 | zhù | (archaic) drum |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 鼓.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 鼓励 (鼓勵) | gǔ lì | to encourage |
| 鼓舞 | gǔ wǔ | to inspire; to encourage; to hearten; to boost (morale) |
| 鼓吹 | gǔ chuī | to agitate for; to enthusiastically promote |
| 鼓掌 | gǔ zhǎng | to applaud; to clap |
| 鼓动 (鼓動) | gǔ dòng | to urge (an activity that may be beneficial, harmful or neutral); to encourage; to agitate; to instigate; to incite; to beat; to flap (wings |
| 打鼓 | dǎ gǔ | to beat a drum; to play a drum |
See also: Japanese symbol for “drum”.
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.