Chinese symbol for “clumsy”
笨拙
bèn zhuō
clumsy; awkward; stupid
The closest CC-CEDICT match for clumsy is 笨拙 (bèn zhuō), defined as: clumsy; awkward; stupid.
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
Other Chinese words for “clumsy”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 拙劣 | zhuō liè | clumsy; botched |
| 笨手笨脚 (笨手笨腳) | bèn shǒu bèn jiǎo | clumsy; all thumbs |
| 蠢 | chǔn | stupid; sluggish |
| 笨 | bèn | stupid; foolish |
| 拙笨 | zhuō bèn | clumsy; awkward |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 笨拙.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 笨蛋 | bèn dàn | (mild insult) fool; idiot; (playful) silly person |
| 笨重 | bèn zhòng | heavy; cumbersome; unwieldy; laborious; arduous |
| 愚笨 | yú bèn | stupid; clumsy |
| 笨手笨脚 (笨手笨腳) | bèn shǒu bèn jiǎo | clumsy; all thumbs |
| 笨人 | bèn rén | fool; stupid person |
| 拙劣 | zhuō liè | clumsy; botched |
| 弄巧成拙 | nòng qiǎo chéng zhuō | to overreach oneself; to try to be clever and end up with egg on one's face |
| 拙作 | zhuō zuò | my unworthy manuscript (humble expr.); my humble writing |
See also: Japanese symbol for “clumsy”.
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.