King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “gruff”

倔
juè
gruff; surly

The closest CC-CEDICT match for gruff is 倔 (juè), defined as: gruff; surly.

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

倔 juè
stubborn, obstinate, intransigent; firm
radical 9 ⼈ · 10 strokes

Other Chinese words for “gruff”

WordPinyinMeaning
粗cū(of sth long) wide; thick; (of sth granular) coarse
粗糙cū cāocrude; gruff

Related words

Other words that share a character with 倔.

WordPinyinMeaning
倔强 (倔強)jué jiàngstubborn; obstinate; unbending
倔头 (倔頭)juè tóua surly, irascible person

See also: Japanese symbol for “gruff”.

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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