Chinese symbol for “inept”
烂泥扶不上墙
làn ní fú bù shàng qiáng
Traditional: 爛泥扶不上牆
useless (idiom); worthless; inept
The closest CC-CEDICT match for inept is 烂泥扶不上墙 (làn ní fú bù shàng qiáng), defined as: useless (idiom); worthless; inept.
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 烂泥扶不上墙.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 灿烂 (燦爛) | càn làn | to glitter; brilliant |
| 腐烂 (腐爛) | fǔ làn | to rot; to putrefy |
| 破烂 (破爛) | pò làn | worn-out; dilapidated; tattered; ragged; (coll.) rubbish; junk |
| 烂摊子 (爛攤子) | làn tān zi | terrible mess; shambles |
| 糜烂 (糜爛) | mí làn | dissipated; rotten |
| 烂透 (爛透) | làn tòu | rotten to the core |
| 水泥 | shuǐ ní | cement; measure word: 袋 (dài) |
| 泥土 | ní tǔ | earth; soil; mud; clay |
| 扶贫 (扶貧) | fú pín | assistance to the poor; poverty alleviation |
| 不是 | bù shì | no; is not |
| 以上 | yǐ shàng | that level or higher; that amount or more; the above-mentioned |
| 城墙 (城牆) | chéng qiáng | city wall |
See also: Japanese symbol for “inept”.
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.