King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

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

笨 bèn
stupid, foolish, dull, awkward
radical 118 ⽵ · 11 strokes
拙 zhuō
awkward, clumsy; dull, stupid
radical 64 ⼿ · 8 strokes

Other Chinese words for “clumsy”

WordPinyinMeaning
拙劣zhuō lièclumsy; botched
笨手笨脚 (笨手笨腳)bèn shǒu bèn jiǎoclumsy; all thumbs
蠢chǔnstupid; sluggish
笨bènstupid; foolish
拙笨zhuō bènclumsy; awkward

Related words

Other words that share a character with 笨拙.

WordPinyinMeaning
笨蛋bèn dàn(mild insult) fool; idiot; (playful) silly person
笨重bèn zhòngheavy; cumbersome; unwieldy; laborious; arduous
愚笨yú bènstupid; clumsy
笨手笨脚 (笨手笨腳)bèn shǒu bèn jiǎoclumsy; all thumbs
笨人bèn rénfool; stupid person
拙劣zhuō lièclumsy; botched
弄巧成拙nòng qiǎo chéng zhuōto overreach oneself; to try to be clever and end up with egg on one's face
拙作zhuō zuòmy 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.

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