King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “feckless”

无所作为
wú suǒ zuò wéi
Traditional: 無所作為
attempting nothing and accomplishing nothing (idiom); without any initiative or drive; feckless

The closest CC-CEDICT match for feckless is 无所作为 (wú suǒ zuò wéi), defined as: attempting nothing and accomplishing nothing (idiom); without any initiative or drive; feckless.

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

无 wú
no, not; lacking, -less
radical 71 ⽆ · 4 strokes
所 suǒ
place, location; "that which", a particle introducing a passive clause
radical 63 ⼾ · 8 strokes
作 zuò
to make; to write, to compose; to act, to perform
radical 9 ⼈ · 7 strokes
为 wéi
to do, to act; to handle, to govern; to be
radical 3 ⼂ · 4 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “feckless”

WordPinyinMeaning
碌碌无为 (碌碌無為)lù lù wú wéiunaccomplished; mediocre

Related words

Other words that share a character with 无所作为.

WordPinyinMeaning
无法 (無法)wú fǎunable to; incapable of
无论 (無論)wú lùnno matter what or how; regardless of whether...
毫无 (毫無)háo wúnot in the least; to completely lack
无限 (無限)wú xiànunlimited; unbounded; infinite
无关 (無關)wú guānunrelated; having nothing to do (with sth else)
无数 (無數)wú shùcountless; numberless
所以suǒ yǐtherefore; as a result
所有suǒ yǒuall; to have; to possess; to own
工作gōng zuòto work; (of a machine) to operate
因为 (因為)yīn wèibecause; owing to; on account of

See also: Japanese symbol for “feckless”.

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.

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