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
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “elusive”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 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.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 困难 (困難) | kùn nan | difficult; challenging |
| 难道 (難道) | nán dào | don't tell me ...; could it be that...? |
| 难以 (難以) | nán yǐ | hard to (predict, imagine etc) |
| 难过 (難過) | nán guò | to feel sad; to feel unwell |
| 难民 (難民) | nàn mín | refugee |
| 灾难 (災難) | zāi nàn | disaster; catastrophe |
| 可以 | kě yǐ | can; may |
| 以及 | yǐ jí | and; as well as |
| 捕捉 | bǔ zhuō | to catch; to seize; to capture |
| 抚摸 (撫摸) | fǔ mō | to 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.