Chinese symbol for “finish”
The closest CC-CEDICT match for finish is 了 (liǎo), defined as: to finish; (used with 得 (dé) or 不 (bù) after a verb to express (im)possibility, as in 忘不了 (wàng bu liǎo) "cannot forget"); (literary) (usually followed by a negative such as 无 (wú) or 不 (bù)) completely (not); entirely (not); (not) in the least; variant of 了 (liǎo).
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 “finish”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 完 | wán | to finish; to be over |
| 完毕 (完畢) | wán bì | to finish; to end |
| 完结 (完結) | wán jié | to finish; to conclude |
| 结束 (結束) | jié shù | to end; to finish; to conclude |
| 成书 (成書) | chéng shū | to finish (writing a book); to appear in book form; a book already in circulation |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 了.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 为了 (為了) | wèi le | for; for the purpose of; in order to |
| 了解 | liǎo jiě | to understand; to know about; to learn about; to find out |
| 除了 | chú le | apart from; besides; in addition to (used to exclude, as in 除了他，誰也沒來|除了他，谁也没来[chu2 le5 ta1 , shei2 ye3 mei2 lai2] "apart from him, nobody ca |
| 不了 | bù le | no thanks (used to politely but informally decline) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “finish”.
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.