King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “explore”

探索
tàn suǒ
to explore; to probe

The closest CC-CEDICT match for explore is 探索 (tàn suǒ), defined as: to explore; to probe.

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

探 tàn
to find, to locate; to grope for, to search for
radical 64 ⼿ · 11 strokes
索 suǒ
cable, rope; rules, laws; to demand, to exact; to search, to inquire
radical 120 ⽷ · 10 strokes

Other Chinese words for “explore”

WordPinyinMeaning
探tànto explore; to search out
探险 (探險)tàn xiǎnto explore; to go on an expedition
勘探kān tànto explore; to survey
探勘tàn kānto explore; to survey
发掘 (發掘)fā juéto excavate; to explore

Related words

Other words that share a character with 探索.

WordPinyinMeaning
探讨 (探討)tàn tǎoto investigate; to probe
侦探 (偵探)zhēn tàndetective; to do detective work
探测 (探測)tàn cèto probe; to survey
探险 (探險)tàn xiǎnto explore; to go on an expedition
探究tàn jiūto investigate; to delve
搜索sōu suǒto search (a place, a database, online etc); to search for (sth)
线索 (線索)xiàn suǒtrail; clues
检索 (檢索)jiǎn suǒto retrieve (data); to look up

See also: Japanese symbol for “explore”.

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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