Chinese symbol for “capricious”
善变
shàn biàn
Traditional: 善變
fickle; mercurial; changeable; capricious
The closest CC-CEDICT match for capricious is 善变 (shàn biàn), defined as: fickle; mercurial; changeable; capricious; to be apt to change.
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 “capricious”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 善变.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 改善 | gǎi shàn | to make better; to improve |
| 完善 | wán shàn | (of systems, facilities etc) comprehensive; well-developed |
| 慈善 | cí shàn | benevolent; charitable |
| 善于 (善於) | shàn yú | to be good at; to be adept at |
| 善良 | shàn liáng | good and honest; kindhearted |
| 友善 | yǒu shàn | friendly |
| 改变 (改變) | gǎi biàn | to change; to alter |
| 变化 (變化) | biàn huà | (intransitive) to change; to vary; change; variation |
See also: Japanese symbol for “capricious”.
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.