Chinese symbol for “reclaim”
垦
kěn
Traditional: 墾
to reclaim (land); to cultivate
The closest CC-CEDICT match for reclaim is 垦 (kěn), defined as: to reclaim (land); to cultivate.
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 “reclaim”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 垦.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 开垦 (開墾) | kāi kěn | to clear a wild area for cultivation; to put under the plow |
| 屯垦 (屯墾) | tún kěn | to garrison troops to open up land |
| 垦荒 (墾荒) | kěn huāng | to open up land (for agriculture) |
| 垦殖 (墾殖) | kěn zhí | to open up land for cultivation |
| 围垦 (圍墾) | wéi kěn | to reclaim land by diking |
| 垦耕 (墾耕) | kěn gēng | to bring under cultivation (scrubland, marshland etc) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “reclaim”.
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.