Chinese symbol for “overall”
总
zǒng
Traditional: 總
(bound form) general; overall; to sum up; in every case; always; invariably; anyway; after all; eventually; sooner or later
The closest CC-CEDICT match for overall is 总 (zǒng), defined as: (bound form) general; overall; to sum up; in every case; always; invariably; anyway; after all; eventually; sooner or later; surely; (after a person's name) abbr. for 总经理 (zǒng jīng lǐ) or 总编 (zǒng biān) etc.
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 “overall”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 全盘 (全盤) | quán pán | overall; comprehensive |
| 大体上 (大體上) | dà tǐ shàng | overall; in general terms |
| 全面 | quán miàn | all-around; comprehensive |
| 整体 (整體) | zhěng tǐ | whole; entirety; overall; whole; general |
| 总体 (總體) | zǒng tǐ | completely; totally |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 总.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 总统 (總統) | zǒng tǒng | president (of a country) |
| 总是 (總是) | zǒng shì | always |
| 总理 (總理) | zǒng lǐ | premier; prime minister |
| 总结 (總結) | zǒng jié | to sum up; to conclude |
| 总部 (總部) | zǒng bù | headquarters |
| 总之 (總之) | zǒng zhī | in a word; in short |
See also: Japanese symbol for “overall”.
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.