King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “varied”

参
cān
Traditional: 參
to take part in; to participate; to join; to attend

The closest CC-CEDICT match for varied is 参 (cān), defined as: to take part in; to participate; to join; to attend; to counsel; unequal.

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

参 cān
to take part in, to intervene; ginseng
radical 28 ⼛ · 8 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “varied”

WordPinyinMeaning
变化多端 (變化多端)biàn huà duō duānchangeable; changing
不等bù děngunequal; varied

Related words

Other words that share a character with 参.

WordPinyinMeaning
参加 (參加)cān jiāto participate; to take part; to join
参与 (參與)cān yùto participate (in sth)
参考 (參考)cān kǎoconsultation; reference
参观 (參觀)cān guānto visit (a place, e.g. museum or factory); to tour; to look around
参数 (參數)cān shùparameter
参赛 (參賽)cān sàito compete; to take part in a competition

See also: Japanese symbol for “varied”.

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.