Chinese symbol for “sponge”
海绵
hǎi mián
Traditional: 海綿
(zoology) sea sponge; (esp.) dried sea sponge; sponge (made from polyester or cellulose etc); foam rubber
The closest CC-CEDICT match for sponge is 海绵 (hǎi mián), defined as: (zoology) sea sponge; (esp.) dried sea sponge; sponge (made from polyester or cellulose etc); foam rubber.
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
Related words
Other words that share a character with 海绵.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 海外 | hǎi wài | overseas; abroad |
| 海军 (海軍) | hǎi jūn | navy |
| 海洋 | hǎi yáng | ocean |
| 海上 | hǎi shàng | maritime |
| 沿海 | yán hǎi | coastal |
| 海岸 | hǎi àn | coastal; seacoast |
| 绵羊 (綿羊) | mián yáng | sheep |
| 绵延 (綿延) | mián yán | (esp. of a mountain range) to be continuous; to stretch long and unbroken |
See also: Japanese symbol for “sponge”.
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.