Chinese symbol for “fail”
失效
shī xiào
to fail; to lose effectiveness
The closest CC-CEDICT match for fail is 失效 (shī xiào), defined as: to fail; to lose effectiveness.
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 “fail”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 落空 | luò kōng | to fail; to fall through; to come to nothing |
| 不及格 | bù jí gé | to fail; to flunk |
| 当 (當) | dàng | at or in the very same...; suitable |
| 失败 (失敗) | shī bài | to be defeated; to lose |
| 倒 | dǎo | to fall; to collapse; to lie horizontally; to fail; to go bankrupt |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 失效.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 失去 | shī qù | to lose |
| 失败 (失敗) | shī bài | to be defeated; to lose |
| 消失 | xiāo shī | to disappear; to fade away |
| 损失 (損失) | sǔn shī | loss; damage |
| 失望 | shī wàng | disappointed; to lose hope |
| 失业 (失業) | shī yè | unemployment; to lose one's job |
| 有效 | yǒu xiào | effective; in effect |
| 效果 | xiào guǒ | result; effect |
See also: Japanese symbol for “fail”.
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.