Chinese symbol for “excavate”
发掘
fā jué
Traditional: 發掘
to excavate; to explore; (fig.) to unearth; to tap into
The closest CC-CEDICT match for excavate is 发掘 (fā jué), defined as: to excavate; to explore; (fig.) to unearth; to tap into.
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 “excavate”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 挖掘 | wā jué | to excavate; (lit and fig.) to unearth; to dig into |
| 采掘 (採掘) | cǎi jué | to excavate; to extract (ore) |
| 挖空 | wā kōng | to excavate; to hollow |
| 开挖 (開挖) | kāi wā | to dig out; to excavate; to scoop out; to start digging |
| 挖 | wā | to dig; to excavate |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 发掘.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 发展 (發展) | fā zhǎn | development; growth |
| 发生 (發生) | fā shēng | to happen; to occur; to take place; to arise (e.g. 发生问题 (fā shēng wèn tí) "a problem arises") |
| 发现 (發現) | fā xiàn | to notice; to become aware of; to discover; to find; to detect |
| 开发 (開發) | kāi fā | to exploit (a resource); to open up (for development); to develop |
| 发布 (發佈) | fā bù | variant of 发布 (fā bù) |
| 挖掘 | wā jué | to excavate; (lit and fig.) to unearth; to dig into |
| 挖掘机 (挖掘機) | wā jué jī | excavator; excavating machine |
| 采掘 (採掘) | cǎi jué | to excavate; to extract (ore) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “excavate”.
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.