Chinese symbol for “subversive”
贼
zéi
Traditional: 賊
thief; robber; (bound form) traitor; subversive; (bound form) evil; wicked; sly; shifty; devious
The closest CC-CEDICT match for subversive is 贼 (zéi), defined as: thief; robber; (bound form) traitor; subversive; (bound form) evil; wicked; sly; shifty; devious; (literary) to harm; to injure; (coll.) extremely; insanely; damn (common in NE China and Taiwan).
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
Other Chinese words for “subversive”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 贼.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 盗贼 (盜賊) | dào zéi | robber |
| 卖国贼 (賣國賊) | mài guó zéi | traitor |
| 海贼 (海賊) | hǎi zéi | pirate |
| 国贼 (國賊) | guó zéi | traitor to the nation |
| 反贼 (反賊) | fǎn zéi | (imperial China) rebel; traitor; (post-1949) enemy of the state; counter-revolutionary |
| 乌贼 (烏賊) | wū zéi | cuttlefish |
See also: Japanese symbol for “subversive”.
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.