King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “investigate”

探讨
tàn tǎo
Traditional: 探討
to investigate; to probe

The closest CC-CEDICT match for investigate is 探讨 (tàn tǎo), defined as: to investigate; to probe.

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

探 tàn
to find, to locate; to grope for, to search for
radical 64 ⼿ · 11 strokes
讨 tǎo
to haggle, to discuss; to demand, to ask for
radical 149 ⾔ · 5 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “investigate”

WordPinyinMeaning
追究zhuī jiūto investigate; to look into
探究tàn jiūto investigate; to delve
考查kǎo cháto investigate; to study
勘测 (勘測)kān cèto investigate; to survey
侦破 (偵破)zhēn pòto investigate (as detective); to solve (crime)

Related words

Other words that share a character with 探讨.

WordPinyinMeaning
探索tàn suǒto explore; to probe
侦探 (偵探)zhēn tàndetective; to do detective work
探测 (探測)tàn cèto probe; to survey
探险 (探險)tàn xiǎnto explore; to go on an expedition
探究tàn jiūto investigate; to delve
讨论 (討論)tǎo lùnto discuss; to talk over
讨厌 (討厭)tǎo yànto dislike; to loathe; annoying; troublesome
研讨会 (研討會)yán tǎo huìdiscussion forum; seminar

See also: Japanese symbol for “investigate”.

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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