King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “hippopotamus”

河马
hé mǎ
Traditional: 河馬
hippopotamus

The closest CC-CEDICT match for hippopotamus is 河马 (hé mǎ), defined as: hippopotamus.

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

河 hé
river, stream; the Yellow river
radical 85 ⽔ · 8 strokes
马 mǎ
horse; surname
radical 187 ⾺ · 3 strokes

Traditional forms

Related words

Other words that share a character with 河马.

WordPinyinMeaning
河流hé liúriver; 条 (tiáo)
河道hé dàoriver course; river channel
运河 (運河)yùn hécanal
河谷hé gǔriver valley
河水hé shuǐriver water
河口hé kǒuestuary; the mouth of a river
马上 (馬上)mǎ shàngat once; right away
马克 (馬克)mǎ kèmark (monetary unit)

See also: Japanese symbol for “hippopotamus”.

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.