King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “inefficient”

低效
dī xiào
inefficient; ineffective

The closest CC-CEDICT match for inefficient is 低效 (dī xiào), defined as: inefficient; ineffective.

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

低 dī
low; to lower, to hang; to bend, to bow
radical 9 ⼈ · 7 strokes
效 xiào
result, effect; effective
radical 66 ⽁ · 10 strokes

Other Chinese words for “inefficient”

WordPinyinMeaning
瘝guānincapacitated; inefficient

Related words

Other words that share a character with 低效.

WordPinyinMeaning
降低jiàng dīto reduce; to lower; to bring down
低于 (低於)dī yúto be lower than
低下dī xiàlow status; lowly
高低gāo dīheight; level; (music) pitch; relative superiority
低头 (低頭)dī tóuto bow the head; to yield
低温 (低溫)dī wēnlow temperature
有效yǒu xiàoeffective; in effect
效果xiào guǒresult; effect

See also: Japanese symbol for “inefficient”.

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.