King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “smug”

踌躇满志
chóu chú mǎn zhì
Traditional: 躊躇滿志
enormously proud of one's success (idiom); smug; complacent

The closest CC-CEDICT match for smug is 踌躇满志 (chóu chú mǎn zhì), defined as: enormously proud of one's success (idiom); smug; complacent.

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

踌 chóu
to falter, to hesitate; smug, self-satisfied
radical 157 ⾜ · 14 strokes
躇 chú
to hesitate, to falter; undecided
radical 157 ⾜ · 18 strokes
满 mǎn
to fill; full, packed; satisfied
radical 85 ⽔ · 14 strokes
志 zhì
determination, will; mark, sign; to record, to write
radical 61 ⼼ · 7 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “smug”

WordPinyinMeaning
得瑟dè se(dialect) cocky; smug; to show off
屁颠屁颠 (屁顛屁顛)pì diān pì diānlit. jolting buttocks; (colloquial intensifier) groveling

Related words

Other words that share a character with 踌躇满志.

WordPinyinMeaning
踌躇 (躊躇)chóu chúto hesitate; (literary) to pace back and forth
踌躇不前 (躊躇不前)chóu chú bù qiánto hesitate to move forward; to hesitate
踌躇不决 (躊躇不決)chóu chú bù juéto hesitate; indecisive
踌蹰 (躊躕)chóu chúvariant of 踌躇 (chóu chú)
踟躇chí chúvariant of 踟蹰 (chí chú)
满足 (滿足)mǎn zúto satisfy; to meet (the needs of)
充满 (充滿)chōng mǎnfull of; brimming with
满意 (滿意)mǎn yìsatisfied; pleased
同志tóng zhìcomrade; (slang) homosexual

See also: Japanese symbol for “smug”.

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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