Chinese symbol for “gull”

海鸥

hǎi ōu

Traditional: 海鷗

gull; seagull

The closest CC-CEDICT match for gull is 海鸥 (hǎi ōu), defined as: gull; seagull.

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

海 hǎi

sea, ocean; maritime

radical 85 ⽔ · 10 strokes

鸥 ōu

seagull, tern; Larus species (various)

radical 196 ⿃ · 9 strokes

Traditional forms

鷗 ōu

Related words

Other words that share a character with 海鸥.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
海外	hǎi wài	overseas; abroad
海军 (海軍)	hǎi jūn	navy
海洋	hǎi yáng	ocean
海上	hǎi shàng	maritime
沿海	yán hǎi	coastal
海岸	hǎi àn	coastal; seacoast
红嘴鸥 (紅嘴鷗)	hóng zuǐ ōu	(bird species of China) black-headed gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus)
遗鸥 (遺鷗)	yí ōu	(bird species of China) relict gull (Ichthyaetus relictus)

See also: Japanese symbol for “gull”.

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.