King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “change”

改变
gǎi biàn
Traditional: 改變
to change; to alter; to transform

The closest CC-CEDICT match for change is 改变 (gǎi biàn), defined as: to change; to alter; to transform.

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

改 gǎi
to alter, to change, to improve, to remodel
radical 66 ⽁ · 7 strokes
变 biàn
to change, to transform, to alter; rebel
radical 29 ⼜ · 8 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “change”

WordPinyinMeaning
变化 (變化)biàn huà(intransitive) to change; to vary; change; variation
变 (變)biànto change; to become different
改gǎito change; to alter
转变 (轉變)zhuǎn biànto change; to transform
转化 (轉化)zhuǎn huàto change; to turn; to convert; (genetics) to transform

Related words

Other words that share a character with 改变.

WordPinyinMeaning
改革gǎi géreform; measure word: 次 (cì), 种 (zhǒng), 项 (xiàng)
改善gǎi shànto make better; to improve
修改xiū gǎito amend; to alter
改造gǎi zàoto transform; to reform
改进 (改進)gǎi jìnto improve; to make better; improvement
变化 (變化)biàn huà(intransitive) to change; to vary; change; variation
变成 (變成)biàn chéngto change into; to turn into
变得 (變得)biàn deto become

See also: Japanese symbol for “change”.

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.

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