Chinese symbol for “founder”
祖师
zǔ shī
Traditional: 祖師
founder (of a craft, religious sect etc)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for founder is 祖师 (zǔ shī), defined as: founder (of a craft, religious sect etc).
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 “founder”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 创办人 (創辦人) | chuàng bàn rén | founder (of an institution etc) |
| 创建者 (創建者) | chuàng jiàn zhě | founder; creator |
| 创立者 (創立者) | chuàng lì zhě | founder |
| 奠基人 | diàn jī rén | founder; pioneer |
| 创始人 (創始人) | chuàng shǐ rén | creator; founder; initiator |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 祖师.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 祖国 (祖國) | zǔ guó | motherland |
| 祖先 | zǔ xiān | ancestors; forebears; (biology) ancestral species; ancient species from which present-day species evolved |
| 祖父 | zǔ fù | father's father; paternal grandfather |
| 祖母 | zǔ mǔ | father's mother; paternal grandmother |
| 祖宗 | zǔ zōng | ancestor; forebear |
| 老师 (老師) | lǎo shī | teacher |
| 教师 (教師) | jiào shī | teacher; 个 (gè) |
| 律师 (律師) | lǜ shī | lawyer |
See also: Japanese symbol for “founder”.
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.