Chinese symbol for “mess”
灶
zào
kitchen stove; kitchen; mess; canteen
The closest CC-CEDICT match for mess is 灶 (zào), defined as: kitchen stove; kitchen; mess; canteen.
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
Related words
Other words that share a character with 灶.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 病灶 | bìng zào | (medicine) lesion; focus of disease; nidus |
| 另起炉灶 (另起爐灶) | lìng qǐ lú zào | lit. to set up a separate kitchen (idiom); to start from scratch; back to square one |
| 炉灶 (爐灶) | lú zào | stove |
| 灶台 | zào tái | stovetop; rangetop |
| 倒灶 | dǎo zào | to fall (from power); in decline |
| 灶具 | zào jù | stove; cooker |
See also: Japanese symbol for “mess”.
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.