Chinese symbol for “inferior”
劣势
liè shì
Traditional: 劣勢
inferior; disadvantaged
The closest CC-CEDICT match for inferior is 劣势 (liè shì), defined as: inferior; disadvantaged.
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
Other Chinese words for “inferior”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 低等 | dī děng | inferior |
| 逊色 (遜色) | xùn sè | inferior (often in the combination 毫無遜色|毫无逊色, not in the least inferior) |
| 劣 | liè | inferior |
| 蹩脚 (蹩腳) | bié jiǎo | inferior; shoddy |
| 伪劣 (偽劣) | wěi liè | inferior; false |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 劣势.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 恶劣 (惡劣) | è liè | vile; nasty |
| 低劣 | dī liè | inferior quality; substandard |
| 劣质 (劣質) | liè zhì | shoddy; of poor quality |
| 卑劣 | bēi liè | base; mean |
| 优劣 (優劣) | yōu liè | good and bad; merits and drawbacks |
| 优势 (優勢) | yōu shì | superiority; dominance |
| 势力 (勢力) | shì li | power; influence |
| 趋势 (趨勢) | qū shì | trend; tendency |
See also: Japanese symbol for “inferior”.
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.