King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “timber”

材
cái
material; timber; ability; aptitude

The closest CC-CEDICT match for timber is 材 (cái), defined as: material; timber; ability; aptitude; a capable individual; coffin (old).

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

材 cái
timber; material, stuff; talent
radical 75 ⽊ · 7 strokes

Other Chinese words for “timber”

WordPinyinMeaning
木料mù liàolumber; timber
顺山倒 (順山倒)shùn shān dǎoTimber! (lumberjack's warning call)

Related words

Other words that share a character with 材.

WordPinyinMeaning
材料cái liào(raw) material; data
题材 (題材)tí cáisubject matter
教材jiào cáiteaching material; measure word: 本 (běn)
身材shēn cáistature; build (height and weight)
木材mù cáiwood
器材qì cáiequipment; material

See also: Japanese symbol for “timber”.

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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