King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “retainer”

从
cóng
Traditional: 從
from; through; via; (bound form) to follow; (bound form) to obey; (bound form) to engage in (an activity)

The closest CC-CEDICT match for retainer is 从 (cóng), defined as: from; through; via; (bound form) to follow; (bound form) to obey; (bound form) to engage in (an activity); (used before a negative) ever; (bound form) (Taiwan pr. [zong4]) retainer; attendant.

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

从 cóng
from, by, since, whence, through
radical 9 ⼈ · 4 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “retainer”

WordPinyinMeaning
保持器bǎo chí qì(orthodontics) retainer
侍从 (侍從)shì cóngto serve (an important personage); attendant; retainer

Related words

Other words that share a character with 从.

WordPinyinMeaning
从事 (從事)cóng shìto go for; to engage in
从而 (從而)cóng érthus; thereby
从来 (從來)cóng láialways; at all times
自从 (自從)zì cóngsince (a time); ever since
从未 (從未)cóng wèinever
从此 (從此)cóng cǐfrom now on; since then

See also: Japanese symbol for “retainer”.

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.

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