King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “root”

本
běn
(bound form) root; stem; (bound form) origin; source; (bound form) one's own; this; (bound form) this; the current (year etc)

The closest CC-CEDICT match for root is 本 (běn), defined as: (bound form) root; stem; (bound form) origin; source; (bound form) one's own; this; (bound form) this; the current (year etc); (bound form) original; (bound form) inherent.

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

本 běn
root, origin, source; basis
radical 75 ⽊ · 5 strokes

Other Chinese words for “root”

WordPinyinMeaning
根gēnroot; basis
源yuánroot; source
根本gēn běnfundamental; basic
根柢gēn dǐroot; foundation
根源gēn yuánorigin; root (cause)

Related words

Other words that share a character with 本.

WordPinyinMeaning
根本gēn běnfundamental; basic
基本jī běnbasic; fundamental
版本bǎn běnversion; edition
资本 (資本)zī běncapital (economics)
本来 (本來)běn láioriginal; originally
本身běn shēnitself; in itself

See also: Japanese symbol for “root”.

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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