King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “work”

工作
gōng zuò
to work; (of a machine) to operate; job; work

The closest CC-CEDICT match for work is 工作 (gōng zuò), defined as: to work; (of a machine) to operate; job; work; task; 个 (gè),份 (fèn),项 (xiàng).

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

工 gōng
labor, work; laborer, worker
radical 48 ⼯ · 3 strokes
作 zuò
to make; to write, to compose; to act, to perform
radical 9 ⼈ · 7 strokes

Other Chinese words for “work”

WordPinyinMeaning
作品zuò pǐnwork (of art); opus
劳动 (勞動)láo dòngwork; toil
操作cāo zuòto work; to operate
工gōngwork; worker
运转 (運轉)yùn zhuǎnto work; to operate

Related words

Other words that share a character with 工作.

WordPinyinMeaning
工业 (工業)gōng yèindustry
工程gōng chéngengineering; an engineering project
工具gōng jùtool; instrument
工人gōng rénworker; 个 (gè),名 (míng)
员工 (員工)yuán gōngstaff; personnel; employee
作为 (作為)zuò wéione's conduct; deed
合作hé zuòto cooperate; to collaborate; to work together
作品zuò pǐnwork (of art); opus

See also: Japanese symbol for “work”.

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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