Japanese symbol for “tail”
尾
お
Romaji: o
tail (of an animal); cauda
In Japanese, tail is 尾, read お (o).
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
- n tail (of an animal); cauda
- n tail (of a kite, etc.); tail end
- n tail (of a comet) (astron)
- n slope at the foot of a mountain
Kanji and stroke order
Other Japanese words for “tail”
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 尻尾 | しっぽ shippo | tail (of an animal) |
| 尾翼 | びよく biyoku | tail (of an aircraft); empennage; tail assembly |
| 尾行 | びこう bikou | shadow; tail; following |
| テール | テール teeru | tail |
| 付ける | つける tsukeru | to follow (someone); to shadow; to tail |
Related words
Words that share a kanji.
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 末尾 | まつび matsubi | end (e.g. of report, document, paragraph, etc.) |
| 尾根 | おね one | (mountain) ridge |
| 語尾 | ごび gobi | (inflectional) ending of a word |
| 交尾 | こうび koubi | copulation (among animals); mating; treading |
| 尾行 | びこう bikou | shadow; tail; following |
| 首尾 | しゅび shubi | beginning and end; from beginning to end |
See also: Chinese symbol for “tail”.
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.