King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “mud”

泥
ní
mud; clay; paste; pulp

The closest CC-CEDICT match for mud is 泥 (ní), defined as: mud; clay; paste; pulp.

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

泥 ní
mud, earth, clay; plaster, paste
radical 85 ⽔ · 8 strokes

Other Chinese words for “mud”

WordPinyinMeaning
泥巴ní ba(coll.) mud
污泥wū nímud; sludge
烂泥 (爛泥)làn nímud; mire
泥淖ní nàomud; muddy swamp
泥土ní tǔearth; soil; mud; clay

Related words

Other words that share a character with 泥.

WordPinyinMeaning
水泥shuǐ nícement; measure word: 袋 (dài)
泥土ní tǔearth; soil; mud; clay
泥沙ní shāsilt
草泥马 (草泥馬)cǎo ní mǎsee 肏你妈 (cào nǐ mā) (near homophone used to avoid Internet censorship); (Internet slang) fictional alpaca-like animal; by extension, an actu
泥泞 (泥濘)ní nìngmuddy; mud
泥巴ní ba(coll.) mud

See also: Japanese symbol for “mud”.

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.