King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “sinking”

沉船事故
chén chuán shì gù
a shipwreck; a sinking

The closest CC-CEDICT match for sinking is 沉船事故 (chén chuán shì gù), defined as: a shipwreck; a sinking.

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

沉 chén
to sink, to submerge; profound, deep
radical 85 ⽔ · 7 strokes
船 chuán
ship, boat, vessel
radical 137 ⾈ · 11 strokes
事 shì
affair, matter, business; to serve; accident, incident
radical 6 ⼅ · 8 strokes
故 gù
reason, cause; happening, instance
radical 66 ⽁ · 9 strokes

Related words

Other words that share a character with 沉船事故.

WordPinyinMeaning
沉默chén mòtaciturn; uncommunicative
沉重chén zhòngheavy; hard
沉淀 (沈澱)chén diànvariant of 沉淀 (chén diàn)
沉浸chén jìnto soak; to permeate
沉睡chén shuìto be fast asleep; (fig.) to lie dormant; to lie undiscovered
船只 (船隻)chuán zhīship; boat
船长 (船長)chuán zhǎngcaptain (of a boat); skipper
船舶chuán bóshipping; boats
事件shì jiànincident; event
故事gù shìold practice

See also: Japanese symbol for “sinking”.

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.