King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “unfold”

展开
zhǎn kāi
Traditional: 展開
to unfold; to spread out; to open up; to launch; to carry out

The closest CC-CEDICT match for unfold is 展开 (zhǎn kāi), defined as: to unfold; to spread out; to open up; to launch; to carry out.

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

展 zhǎn
to open, to unfold; to extend, to stretch
radical 44 ⼫ · 10 strokes
开 kāi
to open; to start, to initiate, to begin
radical 55 ⼶ · 4 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “unfold”

WordPinyinMeaning
演绎 (演繹)yǎn yì(of a story etc) to unfold; to play out; to develop (a technique etc)
开展 (開展)kāi zhǎnto launch; to develop
舒shūto stretch; to unfold
舒展shū zhǎnto roll out; to extend
摊开 (攤開)tān kāito spread out; to unfold

Related words

Other words that share a character with 展开.

WordPinyinMeaning
发展 (發展)fā zhǎndevelopment; growth
开展 (開展)kāi zhǎnto launch; to develop
展示zhǎn shìto reveal; to display; to show; to exhibit
扩展 (擴展)kuò zhǎnto extend; to expand
进展 (進展)jìn zhǎnto make headway; to make progress
开始 (開始)kāi shǐto begin; to start; beginning; start
开发 (開發)kāi fāto exploit (a resource); to open up (for development); to develop
离开 (離開)lí kāito depart; to leave

See also: Japanese symbol for “unfold”.

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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