King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “epitome”

缩影
suō yǐng
Traditional: 縮影
miniature version of sth; microcosm; epitome; (Tw) to microfilm

The closest CC-CEDICT match for epitome is 缩影 (suō yǐng), defined as: miniature version of sth; microcosm; epitome; (Tw) to microfilm.

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

缩 suō
to withdraw, to shrink, to pull back; abbreviation
radical 120 ⽷ · 14 strokes
影 yǐng
shadow; image, reflection; photograph
radical 59 ⼺ · 15 strokes

Traditional forms

Related words

Other words that share a character with 缩影.

WordPinyinMeaning
缩短 (縮短)suō duǎnto shorten; to reduce; to curtail
缩小 (縮小)suō xiǎoto reduce; to decrease; to shrink
压缩 (壓縮)yā suōto compress; compression
收缩 (收縮)shōu suōto pull back; to shrink
缩写 (縮寫)suō xiěabbreviation; to abridge
紧缩 (緊縮)jǐn suō(economics) to reduce; to curtail
影响 (影響)yǐng xiǎnginfluence; effect
电影 (電影)diàn yǐngmovie; film; measure word: 部 (bù)

See also: Japanese symbol for “epitome”.

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.