King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “job”

工作
gōng zuò
to work; (of a machine) to operate; job; work

The closest CC-CEDICT match for job is 工作 (gōng zuò), defined as: to work; (of a machine) to operate; job; work; task; 个 (gè),份 (fèn),项 (xiàng).

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

工 gōng
labor, work; laborer, worker
radical 48 ⼯ · 3 strokes
作 zuò
to make; to write, to compose; to act, to perform
radical 9 ⼈ · 7 strokes

Other Chinese words for “job”

WordPinyinMeaning
职位 (職位)zhí wèiposition; post; job
岗位 (崗位)gǎng wèia post; a job
营生 (營生)yíng sheng(coll.) job; work
差chāito send (on an errand); (archaic) person sent on such an errand
业 (業)yèline of business; industry

Related words

Other words that share a character with 工作.

WordPinyinMeaning
工业 (工業)gōng yèindustry
工程gōng chéngengineering; an engineering project
工具gōng jùtool; instrument
工人gōng rénworker; 个 (gè),名 (míng)
员工 (員工)yuán gōngstaff; personnel; employee
作为 (作為)zuò wéione's conduct; deed
合作hé zuòto cooperate; to collaborate; to work together
作品zuò pǐnwork (of art); opus

See also: Japanese symbol for “job”.

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.