Chinese symbol for “vessel”
船
chuán
boat; vessel; ship; 条 (tiáo),艘 (sōu),只 (zhī)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for vessel is 船 (chuán), defined as: boat; vessel; ship; 条 (tiáo),艘 (sōu),只 (zhī).
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 “vessel”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 盛器 | chéng qì | vessel; receptacle |
| 船只 (船隻) | chuán zhī | ship; boat |
| 容器 | róng qì | receptacle; vessel |
| 皿 | mǐn | (bound form) dish; vessel; shallow container; radical no. 108 |
| 导管 (導管) | dǎo guǎn | duct; pipe; conduit; (botany) vessel |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 船.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 船只 (船隻) | chuán zhī | ship; boat |
| 船长 (船長) | chuán zhǎng | captain (of a boat); skipper |
| 船舶 | chuán bó | shipping; boats |
| 飞船 (飛船) | fēi chuán | spaceship; spacecraft |
| 船员 (船員) | chuán yuán | sailor; crew member |
| 渔船 (漁船) | yú chuán | fishing boat; 条 (tiáo) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “vessel”.
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.