King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “flicker”

闪烁
shǎn shuò
Traditional: 閃爍
to glisten; to glitter; to twinkle; to flicker; to be evasive; to equivocate

The closest CC-CEDICT match for flicker is 闪烁 (shǎn shuò), defined as: to glisten; to glitter; to twinkle; to flicker; to be evasive; to equivocate.

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

闪 shǎn
flash, lightning; to dodge, to evade
radical 169 ⾨ · 5 strokes
烁 shuò
to sparkle, to shine, to glitter
radical 86 ⽕ · 9 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “flicker”

WordPinyinMeaning
明灭 (明滅)míng mièto flicker; to flash on and off
摇曳 (搖曳)yáo yèto sway gently (as in the wind); (of a flame) to flicker
忽悠hū youto rock; to sway
闪映 (閃映)shǎn yìngto flash before one's eyes; to flicker

Related words

Other words that share a character with 闪烁.

WordPinyinMeaning
闪电 (閃電)shǎn diànlightning; measure word: 道 (dào)
闪亮 (閃亮)shǎn liàngbrilliant; shiny
闪耀 (閃耀)shǎn yàoto glint; to glitter
闪光 (閃光)shǎn guāngflash
闪闪 (閃閃)shǎn shǎnflickering; sparkling; glistening; glittering
闪烁其词 (閃爍其詞)shǎn shuò qí cíto speak evasively (idiom); beating about the bush
震古烁今 (震古爍今)zhèn gǔ shuò jīn(lit.) to astonish the ancients and dazzle contemporaries (idiom); (fig.) to be earthshaking
熠烁 (熠爍)yì shuòto twinkle; to glimmer

See also: Japanese symbol for “flicker”.

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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