King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “elusive”

难以捉摸
nán yǐ zhuō mō
Traditional: 難以捉摸
elusive; hard to pin down; enigmatic

The closest CC-CEDICT match for elusive is 难以捉摸 (nán yǐ zhuō mō), defined as: elusive; hard to pin down; enigmatic.

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

难 nán
hard, difficult, arduous; unable
radical 172 ⾫ · 10 strokes
以 yǐ
according to; so as to; because of; then
radical 9 ⼈ · 5 strokes
捉 zhuō
to clutch, to grasp, to seize
radical 64 ⼿ · 10 strokes
摸 mō
to caress, to stroke, to gently touch
radical 64 ⼿ · 14 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “elusive”

WordPinyinMeaning
捉摸不定zhuō mō bù dìng(idiom) unpredictable; elusive; hard to pin down
神出鬼没 (神出鬼沒)shén chū guǐ mò(lit.) to appear and disappear unpredictably like a spirit or a ghost (idiom); (fig.) elusive

Related words

Other words that share a character with 难以捉摸.

WordPinyinMeaning
困难 (困難)kùn nandifficult; challenging
难道 (難道)nán dàodon't tell me ...; could it be that...?
难以 (難以)nán yǐhard to (predict, imagine etc)
难过 (難過)nán guòto feel sad; to feel unwell
难民 (難民)nàn mínrefugee
灾难 (災難)zāi nàndisaster; catastrophe
可以kě yǐcan; may
以及yǐ jíand; as well as
捕捉bǔ zhuōto catch; to seize; to capture
抚摸 (撫摸)fǔ mōto gently caress and stroke; to pet

See also: Japanese symbol for “elusive”.

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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