Chinese symbol for “downfall”
沉沦
chén lún
Traditional: 沉淪
to sink into (vice, depravity etc); to pass into oblivion; downfall; passing
The closest CC-CEDICT match for downfall is 沉沦 (chén lún), defined as: to sink into (vice, depravity etc); to pass into oblivion; downfall; passing.
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 “downfall”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 沉沦.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 沉默 | chén mò | taciturn; uncommunicative |
| 沉重 | chén zhòng | heavy; hard |
| 沉淀 (沈澱) | chén diàn | variant of 沉淀 (chén diàn) |
| 沉浸 | chén jìn | to soak; to permeate |
| 沉睡 | chén shuì | to be fast asleep; (fig.) to lie dormant; to lie undiscovered |
| 沦为 (淪為) | lún wéi | to sink down to; to be reduced to (sth inferior) |
| 沦陷 (淪陷) | lún xiàn | to fall into enemy hands; to be occupied |
| 沦落 (淪落) | lún luò | to degenerate; impoverished |
See also: Japanese symbol for “downfall”.
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.