Chinese symbol for “war”
战争
zhàn zhēng
Traditional: 戰爭
war; conflict; 场 (cháng),次 (cì)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for war is 战争 (zhàn zhēng), defined as: war; conflict; 场 (cháng),次 (cì).
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
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “war”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 大战 (大戰) | dà zhàn | war; to wage war |
| 战事 (戰事) | zhàn shì | war; hostilities |
| 战 (戰) | zhàn | to fight; fight |
| 役 | yì | forced labor; corvée |
| 仗 | zhàng | weaponry; to hold (a weapon) |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 战争.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 战略 (戰略) | zhàn lüè | strategy |
| 战斗 (戰鬥) | zhàn dòu | to fight; to engage in combat |
| 挑战 (挑戰) | tiǎo zhàn | to challenge; to take on a challenge; a challenge |
| 作战 (作戰) | zuò zhàn | combat; to fight |
| 战士 (戰士) | zhàn shì | fighter; soldier |
| 争取 (爭取) | zhēng qǔ | to fight for; to strive for |
| 竞争 (競爭) | jìng zhēng | to compete; competition |
| 斗争 (鬥爭) | dòu zhēng | a struggle; fight |
See also: Japanese symbol for “war”.
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.