King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “idly”

等闲
děng xián
Traditional: 等閒
ordinary; common; unimportant; idly

The closest CC-CEDICT match for idly is 等闲 (děng xián), defined as: ordinary; common; unimportant; idly; for no reason.

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

等 děng
rank, grade; same, equal; to wait
radical 118 ⽵ · 12 strokes
闲 xián
fence, guard; to defend; idle time
radical 169 ⾨ · 7 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “idly”

WordPinyinMeaning
有一搭没一搭 (有一搭沒一搭)yǒu yī dā méi yī dāunimportant; perfunctory

Related words

Other words that share a character with 等闲.

WordPinyinMeaning
等等děng děnget cetera; and so on ...
平等píng děngequal; equality
等待děng dàito wait; to wait for
等级 (等級)děng jígrade; rank
等于 (等於)děng yúto equal; to be tantamount to
高等gāo děnghigh-level; higher (animals, education etc)
休闲 (休閒)xiū xiánleisure; relaxation
闲置 (閒置)xián zhìto leave unused; to leave idle; to lie idle

See also: Japanese symbol for “idly”.

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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