King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “combat”

Romaji: sentou
battle; fight; combat

In Japanese, combat is , read (sentou).

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.

Meanings

  1. n, vi, vs battle; fight; combat

Written forms: . Readings: .

Kanji and stroke order

war, battle, match
on: セン
kun: いくさ、たたか.う、おのの.く、そよ.ぐ
13 strokes · JLPT 2
fight, war
on: トウ
kun: たたか.う、あらそ.う
18 strokes · JLPT 1

Other Japanese words for “combat”

WordReadingMeaning
とうそう tousoufight; battle; combat
じっせん jissencombat; battle; action
コンバット konbattocombat
へいば heibawar; battle; combat

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
せんそう sensouwar
たたかい tatakaibattle; war; fight
さくせん sakusentactics; strategy
ちょうせん chousenchallenge; defiance; dare
せんご sengopostwar period; period after Second World War
とうそう tousoufight; battle; combat
かくとう kakutou(hand-to-hand) fight; grapple; scuffle
きょうとう kyoutoujoint struggle; common (united) front

See also: Chinese symbol for “combat”.

Data: JMdict (CC BY-SA 4.0); KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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