Chinese symbol for “unearth”
挖掘
wā jué
to excavate; (lit and fig.) to unearth; to dig into
The closest CC-CEDICT match for unearth is 挖掘 (wā jué), defined as: to excavate; (lit and fig.) to unearth; to dig into.
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
Other Chinese words for “unearth”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 挖掘.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 开挖 (開挖) | kāi wā | to dig out; to excavate; to scoop out; to start digging |
| 挖掘机 (挖掘機) | wā jué jī | excavator; excavating machine |
| 挖苦 | wā kǔ | to speak sarcastically; to make cutting remarks |
| 挖矿 (挖礦) | wā kuàng | to mine ore or minerals; (computing) to mine cryptocurrency |
| 挖洞 | wā dòng | to dig a hole |
| 发掘 (發掘) | fā jué | to excavate; to explore |
| 采掘 (採掘) | cǎi jué | to excavate; to extract (ore) |
| 开掘 (開掘) | kāi jué | to dig; to excavate; (fig.) to explore (archival materials) and unearth findings |
See also: Japanese symbol for “unearth”.
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.