King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “excavator”

挖掘机
wā jué jī
Traditional: 挖掘機
excavator; excavating machine

The closest CC-CEDICT match for excavator is 挖掘机 (wā jué jī), defined as: excavator; excavating machine.

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

挖 wā
to dig, to excavate
radical 64 ⼿ · 9 strokes
掘 jué
to dig, to excavate
radical 64 ⼿ · 11 strokes
机 jī
desk; machine; moment, opportunity
radical 75 ⽊ · 6 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “excavator”

WordPinyinMeaning
挖土机 (挖土機)wā tǔ jīexcavator; backhoe
挖机 (挖機)wā jīexcavator; excavating machine (abbr. for 挖掘机 (wā jué jī))
挖掘机械 (挖掘機械)wā jué jī xièexcavator; bulldozer
掘土机 (掘土機)jué tǔ jīexcavator
怪手guài shǒu(Tw) excavator; backhoe

Related words

Other words that share a character with 挖掘机.

WordPinyinMeaning
挖掘wā juéto excavate; (lit and fig.) to unearth; to dig into
开挖 (開挖)kāi wāto dig out; to excavate; to scoop out; to start digging
挖苦wā kǔto speak sarcastically; to make cutting remarks
挖矿 (挖礦)wā kuàngto mine ore or minerals; (computing) to mine cryptocurrency
挖洞wā dòngto dig a hole
发掘 (發掘)fā juéto excavate; to explore
采掘 (採掘)cǎi juéto excavate; to extract (ore)
开掘 (開掘)kāi juéto dig; to excavate; (fig.) to explore (archival materials) and unearth findings
机构 (機構)jī gòumechanism; structure

See also: Japanese symbol for “excavator”.

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.