Chinese symbol for “hackneyed”
老套
lǎo tào
hackneyed; well-worn (phrase etc); same old story; stereotypical fashion
The closest CC-CEDICT match for hackneyed is 老套 (lǎo tào), defined as: hackneyed; well-worn (phrase etc); same old story; stereotypical fashion.
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 “hackneyed”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 老套.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 老师 (老師) | lǎo shī | teacher |
| 老婆 | lǎo pó | (coll.) wife |
| 老板 | lǎo bǎn | variant of 老板 (lǎo bǎn) |
| 老人 | lǎo rén | old man or woman; the elderly |
| 老公 | lǎo gōng | (coll.) husband |
| 一套 | yī tào | suit; a set |
| 配套 | pèi tào | to form a complete set; compatible |
| 套餐 | tào cān | set meal; (fig.) product or service package (e.g. for a cell phone subscription) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “hackneyed”.
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.