Chinese symbol for “shell”
壳
ké
Traditional: 殼
(coll.) shell (of an egg, nut, crab etc); case; casing; housing (of a machine or device)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for shell is 壳 (ké), defined as: (coll.) shell (of an egg, nut, crab etc); case; casing; housing (of a machine or device).
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 “shell”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 炮击 (炮擊) | pào jī | to shell; to bombard |
| 炮击 (砲擊) | pào jī | to shell; to bombard |
| 贝壳 (貝殼) | bèi ké | shell (of a mollusk) |
| 弹 (彈) | dàn | crossball; bullet |
| 介 | jiè | to introduce; to lie between |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 壳.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 外壳 (外殼) | wài ké | envelope; outer shell |
| 贝壳 (貝殼) | bèi ké | shell (of a mollusk) |
| 地壳 (地殼) | dì qiào | the Earth's crust |
| 弹壳 (彈殼) | dàn ké | ammunition case |
| 脑壳 (腦殼) | nǎo ké | (coll.) head; skull; (fig.) brains (mental capacity) |
| 蛋壳 (蛋殼) | dàn ké | eggshell |
See also: Japanese symbol for “shell”.
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.