Chinese symbol for “illegible”
潦草
liáo cǎo
slipshod; careless; slovenly; (of handwriting) scrawly; illegible
The closest CC-CEDICT match for illegible is 潦草 (liáo cǎo), defined as: slipshod; careless; slovenly; (of handwriting) scrawly; illegible.
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
Related words
Other words that share a character with 潦草.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 潦倒 | liáo dǎo | down on one's luck; in straitened circumstances; disappointed; frustrated |
| 穷困潦倒 (窮困潦倒) | qióng kùn liáo dǎo | (idiom) to live in poverty and despair; down and out; destitute and without hope |
| 穷愁潦倒 (窮愁潦倒) | qióng chóu liáo dǎo | impoverished and dejected; wretched and penniless |
| 贫穷潦倒 (貧窮潦倒) | pín qióng liáo dǎo | destitute; poverty-stricken |
| 草案 | cǎo àn | draft (legislation, proposal etc) |
| 草原 | cǎo yuán | grassland; prairie |
| 烟草 (煙草) | yān cǎo | tobacco |
| 起草 | qǐ cǎo | to make a draft; to draw up (plans) |
See also: Japanese symbol for “illegible”.
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.