King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “grime”

污垢
wū gòu
dirt; filth; grime

The closest CC-CEDICT match for grime is 污垢 (wū gòu), defined as: dirt; filth; grime.

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

污 wū
filthy, dirty; polluted, impure
radical 85 ⽔ · 6 strokes
垢 gòu
dirt, filth, stains; dirty; disgraceful
radical 32 ⼟ · 9 strokes

Other Chinese words for “grime”

WordPinyinMeaning
脏污 (髒污)zāng wūfilth; grime; stain; dirty; filthy
泥垢ní gòudirt; grime

Related words

Other words that share a character with 污垢.

WordPinyinMeaning
污染wū rǎn(lit. and fig.) to pollute; to contaminate
贪污 (貪污)tān wūto be corrupt; corruption
污水wū shuǐsewage
污染物wū rǎn wùpollutant
环境污染 (環境污染)huán jìng wū rǎnenvironmental pollution
污点 (污點)wū diǎnstain; taint
蓬头垢面 (蓬頭垢面)péng tóu gòu miànmessy hair and dirty face; bad appearance
水垢shuǐ gòulimescale

See also: Japanese symbol for “grime”.

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.