King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “surreptitiously”

暗中
àn zhōng
in the dark; in secret; on the sly; surreptitiously

The closest CC-CEDICT match for surreptitiously is 暗中 (àn zhōng), defined as: in the dark; in secret; on the sly; surreptitiously.

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

暗 àn
dark, gloomy; obscure; secret, covert
radical 72 ⽇ · 13 strokes
中 zhōng
central; center, middle; amidst; to hit (target), to attain; China; Ch
radical 2 ⼁ · 4 strokes

Other Chinese words for “surreptitiously”

WordPinyinMeaning
魆魆xū xūsecretly; surreptitiously

Related words

Other words that share a character with 暗中.

WordPinyinMeaning
黑暗hēi àndark; darkly
暗示àn shìto hint; to suggest; hint; suggestion
暗杀 (暗殺)àn shāto assassinate
阴暗 (陰暗)yīn àndim; dark
暗号 (暗號)àn hàosecret signal; password; countersign
其中qí zhōngamong; in
中心zhōng xīncenter; heart; core
中央zhōng yāngcentral; middle

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.