King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “shaft”

杆
gān
(bound form) pole; shaft

The closest CC-CEDICT match for shaft is 杆 (gān), defined as: (bound form) pole; shaft.

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

杆 gān
cane, pole, stick
radical 75 ⽊ · 7 strokes

Other Chinese words for “shaft”

WordPinyinMeaning
车把 (車把)chē bǎhandlebar (of a bicycle); shaft (of a rickshaw)
坑kēngpit; hollow; depression; (mining) pit; shaft; tunnel
矛柄máo bǐngshaft
机轴 (機軸)jī zhóuarbor; shaft (in a machine)
抦bǐngold variant of 秉 (bǐng); variant of 柄 (bǐng)

Related words

Other words that share a character with 杆.

WordPinyinMeaning
杠杆 (槓桿)gàng gǎnlever; pry bar
栏杆 (欄杆)lán gānrailing; banister
杆菌 (桿菌)gǎn jūnbacillus (any rod-shaped bacteria)
铁杆 (鐵桿)tiě gāniron (golf club)
电线杆 (電線杆)diàn xiàn gānelectric pole; telephone pole

See also: Japanese symbol for “shaft”.

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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