King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “searching”

Romaji: tanbou
searching; hunting for news story; journalist

In Japanese, searching is , read (tanbou).

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, vs, vt searching; hunting for news story; journalist

Kanji and stroke order

grope, search, look for
on: タン
kun: さぐ.る、さが.す
11 strokes · JLPT 2
call on, visit, look up
on: ホウ
kun: おとず.れる、たず.ねる、と.う
11 strokes · JLPT 2

Other Japanese words for “searching”

WordReadingMeaning
もさく mosakugroping (for); fumbling around (for); searching (for an answer, solution, etc.)
ぶっしょく busshokulooking for (a suitable thing or person); searching for; hunting out
あさり asarisearching; rummaging
おたずね otazunesearching; looking for

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
さがす sagasuto search for; to look for; to hunt for
たんけん tankenexploration; expedition
たんさく tansakusearch; lookup; hunt
たんてい tanteidetective; investigator; sleuth
たんち tanchidetection
たんさ tansaprobe; inquiry; enquiry
ほうもん houmoncall; visit
たずねる tazuneruto visit; to call on; to pay a visit to

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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