Chinese symbol for “pit”
坑
kēng
pit; hollow; depression; (mining) pit; shaft; tunnel; (literary) to bury alive; (coll.) to cheat; to scam; to screw over
The closest CC-CEDICT match for pit is 坑 (kēng), defined as: pit; hollow; depression; (mining) pit; shaft; tunnel; (literary) to bury alive; (coll.) to cheat; to scam; to screw over.
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 “pit”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 核 | hé | pit; stone |
| 坎 | kǎn | pit; threshold |
| 地穴 | dì xué | pit; burrow |
| 坎 (埳) | kǎn | old variant of 坎 (kǎn); pit |
| 果核 | guǒ hé | stone (of a fruit); pit |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 坑.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 坑洞 | kēng dòng | hole; pit |
| 坑人 | kēng rén | (coll.) to cheat; to swindle; to rip sb off; to screw sb over |
| 坑道 | kēng dào | mine shaft; gallery |
| 矿坑 (礦坑) | kuàng kēng | mine; mine shaft |
| 坑爹 | kēng diē | to get one's father involved in a difficult situation; (vulgar) (of sth that makes one feel misled or let down etc) to be a big disappointme |
| 水坑 | shuǐ kēng | puddle; water hole |
See also: Japanese symbol for “pit”.
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.