Chinese symbol for “barren”
贫瘠
pín jí
Traditional: 貧瘠
barren; infertile; poor
The closest CC-CEDICT match for barren is 贫瘠 (pín jí), defined as: barren; infertile; poor.
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.
Characters and stroke order
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “barren”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 寸草不生 | cùn cǎo bù shēng | (idiom) barren; devoid of vegetation |
| 瘠 | jí | barren; lean |
| 埆 | què | (of land) barren; stony |
| 秃 (禿) | tū | bald (lacking hair or feathers); barren; bare; denuded |
| 不毛 | bù máo | barren |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 贫瘠.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 贫困 (貧困) | pín kùn | impoverished; poverty |
| 贫穷 (貧窮) | pín qióng | poor; impoverished |
| 扶贫 (扶貧) | fú pín | assistance to the poor; poverty alleviation |
| 贫民 (貧民) | pín mín | poor people |
| 脱贫 (脫貧) | tuō pín | to lift oneself out of poverty |
| 贫乏 (貧乏) | pín fá | impoverished; lacking |
| 瘠薄 | jí bó | (of land) infertile; barren |
| 哀毁瘠立 (哀毀瘠立) | āi huǐ jí lì | see 哀毁骨立 (āi huǐ gǔ lì) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “barren”.
Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.