Chinese symbol for “master”
师傅
shī fu
Traditional: 師傅
master; qualified worker; respectful form of address for older men; 个 (gè),位 (wèi),名 (míng)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for master is 师傅 (shī fu), defined as: master; qualified worker; respectful form of address for older men; 个 (gè),位 (wèi),名 (míng).
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
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “master”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 主子 | zhǔ zi | Master (term used by servant); Your Majesty |
| 学会 (學會) | xué huì | to learn; to master; institute; learned society; (scholarly) association |
| 主人翁 | zhǔ rén wēng | master (of the house); main character in a novel etc |
| 东家 (東家) | dōng jiā | master (i.e. employer); landlord |
| 练就 (練就) | liàn jiù | to master (a skill) |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 师傅.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 老师 (老師) | lǎo shī | teacher |
| 教师 (教師) | jiào shī | teacher; 个 (gè) |
| 律师 (律師) | lǜ shī | lawyer |
| 大师 (大師) | dà shī | great master; master |
| 工程师 (工程師) | gōng chéng shī | engineer |
| 设计师 (設計師) | shè jì shī | designer; architect |
| 面包师傅 (麵包師傅) | miàn bāo shī fù | baker |
| 傅会 (傅會) | fù huì | variant of 附会 (fù huì) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “master”.
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.