King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “stowaway”

偷渡
tōu dù
illegal immigration; to stowaway (on a ship); to steal across the international border; to run a blockade

The closest CC-CEDICT match for stowaway is 偷渡 (tōu dù), defined as: illegal immigration; to stowaway (on a ship); to steal across the international border; to run a blockade.

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

偷 tōu
to steal; burglar, thief
radical 9 ⼈ · 11 strokes
渡 dù
to cross, to ferry over, to pass through
radical 85 ⽔ · 12 strokes

Other Chinese words for “stowaway”

WordPinyinMeaning
偷渡者tōu dù zhěsmuggled illegal alien; stowaway

Related words

Other words that share a character with 偷渡.

WordPinyinMeaning
偷偷tōu tōustealthily; secretly
小偷xiǎo tōuthief
偷拍tōu pāito photograph or film sb without their knowledge or consent
偷看tōu kànto peep; to peek
偷窃 (偷竊)tōu qièto steal; to pilfer
偷袭 (偷襲)tōu xíto mount a sneak attack; to raid
过渡 (過渡)guò dùto cross over (by ferry); transition
渡过 (渡過)dù guòto cross over; to pass through

See also: Japanese symbol for “stowaway”.

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.