Chinese symbol for “smear”
抹
mǒ
to smear; to wipe; to erase; classifier for wisps of cloud, light-beams etc
The closest CC-CEDICT match for smear is 抹 (mǒ), defined as: to smear; to wipe; to erase; classifier for wisps of cloud, light-beams etc.
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
Other Chinese words for “smear”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 糊 | hū | to smear; to daub; to cover (a surface with sth sticky or paste-like); Taiwan pr. [hu2] |
| 涂片 (塗片) | tú piàn | smear (medical sample); microscope slide |
| 涂敷 (塗敷) | tú fū | to smear; to daub |
| 涂污 (塗污) | tú wū | to smear; to deface |
| 敷贴 (敷貼) | fū tiē | to smear; to apply glue or ointment to a surface |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 抹.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 涂抹 (塗抹) | tú mǒ | to paint; to smear |
| 抹黑 | mǒ hēi | to discredit; to defame |
| 抹杀 (抹殺) | mǒ shā | to erase; to cover traces |
| 抹布 | mā bù | cleaning rag; also pr. [mo3 bu4] |
| 抹煞 | mǒ shā | variant of 抹杀 (mǒ shā) |
| 拐弯抹角 (拐彎抹角) | guǎi wān mò jiǎo | lit. going round the curves and skirting the corners (idiom); fig. to speak in a roundabout way |
See also: Japanese symbol for “smear”.
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.