Chinese symbol for “dysfunctional”

缺位

quē wèi

(of a position) to fall vacant; vacant post; a vacancy; (of regulation, service etc) unsatisfactory; dysfunctional

The closest CC-CEDICT match for dysfunctional is 缺位 (quē wèi), defined as: (of a position) to fall vacant; vacant post; a vacancy; (of regulation, service etc) unsatisfactory; dysfunctional.

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

缺 quē

to lack, to be short; vacancy, gap, deficit

radical 121 ⽸ · 10 strokes

位 wèi

seat, throne; rank, status; position, location

radical 9 ⼈ · 7 strokes

Related words

Other words that share a character with 缺位.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
缺乏	quē fá	to lack; to be short of
缺少	quē shǎo	lack; shortage of
缺点 (缺點)	quē diǎn	weak point; fault
缺陷	quē xiàn	defect; flaw
短缺	duǎn quē	shortage
缺席	quē xí	to be absent
单位 (單位)	dān wèi	unit (of measure); unit (group of people as a whole)
位于 (位於)	wèi yú	to be located at; to be situated at

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.