Chinese symbol for “prison”
监狱
jiān yù
Traditional: 監獄
prison
The closest CC-CEDICT match for prison is 监狱 (jiān yù), defined as: prison.
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 “prison”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 狱 (獄) | yù | prison |
| 牢狱 (牢獄) | láo yù | prison |
| 地牢 | dì láo | prison; dungeon |
| 大牢 | dà láo | prison |
| 监牢 (監牢) | jiān láo | prison; jail |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 监狱.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 监督 (監督) | jiān dū | to supervise; to oversee; to inspect |
| 监管 (監管) | jiān guǎn | to oversee; to take charge of |
| 监控 (監控) | jiān kòng | to monitor |
| 监视 (監視) | jiān shì | to monitor; to keep a close watch over |
| 监察 (監察) | jiān chá | to supervise; to control |
| 地狱 (地獄) | dì yù | hell; underworld; (Buddhism) Naraka; (coll.) (of humor, jokes, content etc) extremely dark or morally transgressive |
| 入狱 (入獄) | rù yù | to go to jail; to be sent to prison |
| 出狱 (出獄) | chū yù | to be released from prison |
See also: Japanese symbol for “prison”.
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.