Chinese symbol for “penetrate”
透
tòu
(bound form) to penetrate; to seep through; to tell secretly; to leak; thoroughly; through and through; to appear; to show
The closest CC-CEDICT match for penetrate is 透 (tòu), defined as: (bound form) to penetrate; to seep through; to tell secretly; to leak; thoroughly; through and through; to appear; to show.
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
Other Chinese words for “penetrate”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 打入 | dǎ rù | to penetrate; to break into (a market, social group etc); to infiltrate (enemy ranks etc); to banish to; to relegate to |
| 穿透 | chuān tòu | to penetrate |
| 识破 (識破) | shí pò | to penetrate; to see through |
| 透过 (透過) | tòu guò | to pass through; to penetrate; by means of; via |
| 洞穿 | dòng chuān | to penetrate; to pierce |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 透.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 透过 (透過) | tòu guò | to pass through; to penetrate; by means of; via |
| 透露 | tòu lù | to leak out; to divulge |
| 透明 | tòu míng | transparent; (fig.) transparent; open to scrutiny |
| 渗透 (滲透) | shèn tòu | (lit. and fig.) to permeate; to seep into |
| 透明度 | tòu míng dù | transparency; (policy of) openness |
| 透视 (透視) | tòu shì | (drawing and painting) perspective; (medicine) to perform fluoroscopy; to examine by X-ray |
See also: Japanese symbol for “penetrate”.
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.