King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “owl”

猫头鹰
māo tóu yīng
Traditional: 貓頭鷹
owl

The closest CC-CEDICT match for owl is 猫头鹰 (māo tóu yīng), defined as: owl.

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

猫 māo
cat
radical 94 ⽝ · 12 strokes
头 tóu
head; chief, boss; first, top
radical 37 ⼤ · 5 strokes
鹰 yīng
eagle, falcon, hawk
radical 196 ⿃ · 18 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “owl”

WordPinyinMeaning
枭 (梟)xiāoowl; valiant
鸮 (鴞)xiāoowl (order Strigiformes)
夜猫子 (夜貓子)yè māo ziowl; (fig.) night owl
鵩fúowl
夜枭 (夜梟)yè xiāoowl

Related words

Other words that share a character with 猫头鹰.

WordPinyinMeaning
熊猫 (熊貓)xióng māopanda; 只 (zhī)
猫咪 (貓咪)māo mīkitty (affectionate term for a cat)
小猫 (小貓)xiǎo māokitten
大熊猫 (大熊貓)dà xióng māogiant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)
野猫 (野貓)yě māowildcat; feral cat; stray cat
头发 (頭髮)tóu fahair (on the head)
街头 (街頭)jiē tóustreet
镜头 (鏡頭)jìng tóucamera lens; camera shot (in a movie etc)
老鹰 (老鷹)lǎo yīng(coll.) eagle; hawk; any similar bird of prey

See also: Japanese symbol for “owl”.

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.

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