King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “sunken”

Romaji: ou
concave; hollow; sunken

In Japanese, sunken is , read (ou).

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. pref concave; hollow; sunken

Kanji and stroke order

concave, hollow, sunken
on: オウ
kun: くぼ.む、へこ.む、ぼこ
5 strokes · JLPT 1

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
おうとつ outotsuunevenness; bumpiness; roughness
でこぼこ dekobokounevenness; roughness; ruggedness
くぼみ kubomihollow; cavity; dent
へこむ hekomuto be dented; to be indented; to yield
おうめん oumenconcavity
おうはん ouhanintaglio plate

See also: Chinese symbol for “sunken”.

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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