Chinese character for monkey: 猴 (hóu)

The Chinese character for monkey is 猴 (hóu). It means monkey and is the ninth animal of the Chinese zodiac. It appears in 猴子 (hóuzi, monkey) and 猴年 (hóu nián, Year of the Monkey).

How 猴 is built

猴 joins 犭, the animal radical (a short form of 犬, dog), with 侯 (hóu), which gives the sound. This is a standard sound-plus-meaning pattern: the left side says 'animal' and the right side tells you how to say it. The Monkey King, Sun Wukong, from the novel Journey to the West, is the most famous monkey in Chinese culture. 猴 is identical in simplified and traditional Chinese.

猴 hóu · monkey

• 犭quǎn — dog
• 侯hóu — marquis
  • 亻rén — person
  • 矦hóu — target in archery

How 猴 is used

Before you use it as a tattoo or design: 猴 is identical in both scripts; for a zodiac tattoo it is understood alone as the Monkey sign.

Questions

Related

• 羊goat (sheep)
• 鸡rooster
• 鼠rat
• 龙dragon
• 笑smile

Full page for 猴 › All characters for words