King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “intelligent”

聪明
cōng ming
Traditional: 聰明
intelligent; clever; bright; acute (of sight and hearing)

The closest CC-CEDICT match for intelligent is 聪明 (cōng ming), defined as: intelligent; clever; bright; acute (of sight and hearing).

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

聪 cōng
sharp (of sight and hearing); intelligent, clever, bright
radical 128 ⽿ · 15 strokes
明 ming
bright, clear; to explain, to understand, to shed light
radical 72 ⽇ · 8 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “intelligent”

WordPinyinMeaning
智能zhì néngintelligent; able
慧huìintelligent
明慧míng huìintelligent; brilliant
聪慧 (聰慧)cōng huìbright; intelligent
慧黠huì xiáintelligent; bright

Related words

Other words that share a character with 聪明.

WordPinyinMeaning
聪慧 (聰慧)cōng huìbright; intelligent
聪明才智 (聰明才智)cōng ming cái zhìintelligence and ability
小聪明 (小聰明)xiǎo cōng mingclever-clever; clever in trivial matters
聪颖 (聰穎)cōng yǐngsmart; intelligent
自作聪明 (自作聰明)zì zuò cōng míng(idiom) to think oneself clever
说明 (說明)shuō míngto explain; to illustrate
证明 (證明)zhèng míngproof; certificate
明白míng baiclear; obvious; unequivocal; sensible; reasonable

See also: Japanese symbol for “intelligent”.

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.

Last posts

  1. How Much Should You Spend on a Wooden Practice Sword
  2. How Long Should a Bokken Be for Your Height
  3. Red Oak vs White Oak for Bokken Which Wood Wins
  4. Best Bokken for Beginners: Choosing Your First Training Sword
  5. Best Escrima Sticks for Students Choosing Your First Pair
  6. Essential Accessories for Your First Pair of Escrima Sticks
  7. Best Escrima Sticks for Your First Seminar
  8. Best Canes for Cane-Fu and Hapkido Training
  9. Which Rattan Sticks Have the Most Nodes for Durability
  10. Choosing Filipino Martial Arts Sticks for Double Work