Chinese symbol for “diminish”
消
xiāo
to diminish; to subside; to consume; to reduce; to idle away (the time); (after 不 (bù) or 只 (zhǐ) or 何 (hé) etc) to need; to require; to take
The closest CC-CEDICT match for diminish is 消 (xiāo), defined as: to diminish; to subside; to consume; to reduce; to idle away (the time); (after 不 (bù) or 只 (zhǐ) or 何 (hé) etc) to need; to require; to take.
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 “diminish”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 贬 (貶) | biǎn | to diminish; to demote |
| 减弱 (減弱) | jiǎn ruò | to weaken; to diminish |
| 损 (損) | sǔn | (bound form) to decrease; to diminish; (bound form) to harm; to damage |
| 减 (減) | jiǎn | to lower; to decrease |
| 裁 | cái | to cut out (as a dress); to cut |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 消.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 消息 | xiāo xi | (piece of) news; information; message |
| 取消 | qǔ xiāo | to cancel; to call off; to revoke; to rescind |
| 消费 (消費) | xiāo fèi | to consume (goods and services, resources etc) |
| 消失 | xiāo shī | to disappear; to fade away |
| 消费者 (消費者) | xiāo fèi zhě | consumer |
| 消灭 (消滅) | xiāo miè | to put an end to; to annihilate |
See also: Japanese symbol for “diminish”.
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.