King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “protection”

保护
bǎo hù
Traditional: 保護
to protect; to defend; to safeguard; protection

The closest CC-CEDICT match for protection is 保护 (bǎo hù), defined as: to protect; to defend; to safeguard; protection; 种 (zhǒng).

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

保 bǎo
to safeguard, to protect, to defend, to care for
radical 9 ⼈ · 9 strokes
护 hù
to defend, to guard, to protect; shelter; endorse
radical 64 ⼿ · 7 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “protection”

WordPinyinMeaning
庥xiūprotection; shade
掩蔽yǎn bìshelter; screen; cover; protection
掩护 (掩護)yǎn hùto screen; to shield
防避fáng bìprotection
庇佑bì yòuto bless; to protect

Related words

Other words that share a character with 保护.

WordPinyinMeaning
保证 (保證)bǎo zhèngguarantee; to guarantee
保持bǎo chíto keep; to maintain
保障bǎo zhàngto ensure; to guarantee
确保 (確保)què bǎoto ensure; to guarantee
保险 (保險)bǎo xiǎninsurance; to insure
维护 (維護)wéi hùto defend; to safeguard
护士 (護士)hù shinurse
辩护 (辯護)biàn hùto speak in defense of; to argue in favor of

See also: Japanese symbol for “protection”.

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.