Chinese symbol for “prone”

伏卧

fú wò

Traditional: 伏臥

lying down; to lie prostrate; prone

The closest CC-CEDICT match for prone is 伏卧 (fú wò), defined as: lying down; to lie prostrate; prone.

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

伏 fú

to crouch, to crawl, to lie hidden, to conceal

radical 9 ⼈ · 6 strokes

卧 wò

to crouch; to lie down

radical 25 ⼘ · 8 strokes

Traditional forms

臥 wò

Related words

Other words that share a character with 伏卧.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
起伏	qǐ fú	to move up and down; to undulate
潜伏 (潛伏)	qián fú	to hide; to cover up
埋伏	mái fú	to ambush; to lie in wait for
伏击 (伏擊)	fú jī	ambush; to ambush
伏特加	fú tè jiā	(loanword) vodka
伏特	fú tè	(loanword) volt
卧室 (臥室)	wò shì	bedroom; 间 (jiān)
卧底 (臥底)	wò dǐ	to hide (as an undercover agent); an insider (in a gang of thieves)

See also: Japanese symbol for “prone”.

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.