Chinese symbol for “hew”

砍伐

kǎn fá

to hew; to cut down

The closest CC-CEDICT match for hew is 砍伐 (kǎn fá), defined as: to hew; to cut down.

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

砍 kǎn

to hack, to chop, to cut, to fell

radical 112 ⽯ · 9 strokes

伐 fá

cut down, subjugate, attack

radical 9 ⼈ · 6 strokes

Other Chinese words for “hew”

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
槎	chá	a raft made of bamboo or wood; to fell trees
楂	chá	fell trees; raft

Related words

Other words that share a character with 砍伐.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
砍头 (砍頭)	kǎn tóu	to decapitate; to behead
砍杀 (砍殺)	kǎn shā	to attack with a bladed weapon
砍死	kǎn sǐ	to hack to death; to kill with an ax
砍伤 (砍傷)	kǎn shāng	to wound with a blade or hatchet; to slash
砍刀	kǎn dāo	machete
步伐	bù fá	pace; (measured) step
讨伐 (討伐)	tǎo fá	to suppress by armed force; to send a punitive expedition against
伐木	fá mù	to fell trees (for timber)

See also: Japanese symbol for “hew”.

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.