Chinese symbol for “quagmire”
泥潭
ní tán
quagmire
The closest CC-CEDICT match for quagmire is 泥潭 (ní tán), defined as: quagmire.
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
Related words
Other words that share a character with 泥潭.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 水泥 | shuǐ ní | cement; measure word: 袋 (dài) |
| 泥土 | ní tǔ | earth; soil; mud; clay |
| 泥沙 | ní shā | silt |
| 草泥马 (草泥馬) | cǎo ní mǎ | see 肏你妈 (cào nǐ mā) (near homophone used to avoid Internet censorship); (Internet slang) fictional alpaca-like animal; by extension, an actu |
| 泥泞 (泥濘) | ní nìng | muddy; mud |
| 泥巴 | ní ba | (coll.) mud |
| 水潭 | shuǐ tán | water pool; pond |
| 潭水 | tán shuǐ | deep water |
See also: Japanese symbol for “quagmire”.
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.