Chinese symbol for “hesitating”
讷讷
nè nè
Traditional: 訥訥
(of speech) indistinct; mumbling; hesitating
The closest CC-CEDICT match for hesitating is 讷讷 (nè nè), defined as: (of speech) indistinct; mumbling; hesitating.
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
Traditional forms
Related words
Other words that share a character with 讷讷.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 木讷 (木訥) | mù nè | wooden and slow of speech; slow-speeched |
| 木讷寡言 (木訥寡言) | mù nè guǎ yán | honest and unaffected but not talkative (idiom) |
| 刚毅木讷 (剛毅木訥) | gāng yì mù nè | resolute and taciturn (idiom) |
| 口讷 (口訥) | kǒu nè | (literary) inarticulate |
| 讷涩 (訥澀) | nè sè | clumsy in speech; tongue tied |
See also: Japanese symbol for “hesitating”.
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.