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
Traditional forms
Other Chinese words for “change”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 变化 (變化) | biàn huà | (intransitive) to change; to vary; change; variation |
| 变 (變) | biàn | to change; to become different |
| 改 | gǎi | to change; to alter |
| 转变 (轉變) | zhuǎn biàn | to change; to transform |
| 转化 (轉化) | zhuǎn huà | to change; to turn; to convert; (genetics) to transform |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 改变.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 改革 | gǎi gé | reform; measure word: 次 (cì), 种 (zhǒng), 项 (xiàng) |
| 改善 | gǎi shàn | to make better; to improve |
| 修改 | xiū gǎi | to amend; to alter |
| 改造 | gǎi zào | to transform; to reform |
| 改进 (改進) | gǎi jìn | to improve; to make better; improvement |
| 变化 (變化) | biàn huà | (intransitive) to change; to vary; change; variation |
| 变成 (變成) | biàn chéng | to change into; to turn into |
| 变得 (變得) | biàn de | to 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.