King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “extensible”

伸缩
shēn suō
Traditional: 伸縮
to lengthen and shorten; flexible; adjustable; retractable

The closest CC-CEDICT match for extensible is 伸缩 (shēn suō), defined as: to lengthen and shorten; flexible; adjustable; retractable; extensible; telescoping (collapsible).

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

伸 shēn
to extend, to stretch out, to open up; to trust
radical 9 ⼈ · 7 strokes
缩 suō
to withdraw, to shrink, to pull back; abbreviation
radical 120 ⽷ · 14 strokes

Traditional forms

Related words

Other words that share a character with 伸缩.

WordPinyinMeaning
延伸yán shēnto extend; to stretch; to expand; to spread
伸出shēn chūto extend
伸手shēn shǒuto reach out with one's hand; to hold out a hand
伸展shēn zhǎnstretching; extension
伸张 (伸張)shēn zhāngto uphold (e.g. justice or virtue); to promote
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

See also: Japanese symbol for “extensible”.

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.