King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “guard”

守
shǒu
to guard; to defend; to keep watch; to abide by the law

The closest CC-CEDICT match for guard is 守 (shǒu), defined as: to guard; to defend; to keep watch; to abide by the law; to observe (rules or ritual); nearby.

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

守 shǒu
to defend, to guard, to protect; to conserve; to wait
radical 40 ⼧ · 6 strokes

Other Chinese words for “guard”

WordPinyinMeaning
卫 (衛)wèito guard; to protect
守护 (守護)shǒu hùto guard; to protect
守卫 (守衛)shǒu wèito guard; to defend
卫队 (衛隊)wèi duìguard (i.e. group of soldiers)
看守kān shǒuto guard; to watch over

Related words

Other words that share a character with 守.

WordPinyinMeaning
遵守zūn shǒuto comply with; to abide by; to respect (an agreement)
保守bǎo shǒuconservative; to guard
守护 (守護)shǒu hùto guard; to protect
防守fáng shǒuto defend; to protect (against)
坚守 (堅守)jiān shǒuto hold fast to; to stick to
守卫 (守衛)shǒu wèito guard; to defend

See also: Japanese symbol for “guard”.

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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