Chinese symbol for “challenging”
困难
kùn nan
Traditional: 困難
difficult; challenging; straitened circumstances; difficult situation
The closest CC-CEDICT match for challenging is 困难 (kùn nan), defined as: difficult; challenging; straitened circumstances; difficult situation.
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 “challenging”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 艰巨 (艱鉅) | jiān jù | (of a task, mission or responsibility) extremely difficult; challenging; demanding |
| 高难 (高難) | gāo nán | extremely difficult; hard and dangerous |
| 克难 (克難) | kè nán | to make do in difficult circumstances by being resourceful; (of circumstances) difficult |
| 戛戛 | jiá jiá | difficult; challenging |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 困难.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 贫困 (貧困) | pín kùn | impoverished; poverty |
| 困境 | kùn jìng | predicament; plight |
| 困扰 (困擾) | kùn rǎo | to perplex; to disturb |
| 困惑 | kùn huò | bewildered; perplexed |
| 被困 | bèi kùn | to be trapped; to be stranded |
| 难道 (難道) | nán dào | don't tell me ...; could it be that...? |
| 难以 (難以) | nán yǐ | hard to (predict, imagine etc) |
| 难过 (難過) | nán guò | to feel sad; to feel unwell |
See also: Japanese symbol for “challenging”.
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.