Chinese symbol for “instant”
刹那
chà nà
Traditional: 剎那
an instant (Sanskrit: ksana); split second; the twinkling of an eye
The closest CC-CEDICT match for instant is 刹那 (chà nà), defined as: an instant (Sanskrit: ksana); split second; the twinkling of an eye.
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 “instant”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 即食 | jí shí | instant (food) |
| 速食 | sù shí | (of food) fast; instant; (Tw) fast food |
| 即刻 | jí kè | immediately; instant |
| 一刹那 (一剎那) | yī chà nà | a moment; an instant |
| 一刻 | yī kè | a quarter of an hour; 15 minutes; a moment; an instant |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 刹那.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 刹车 (剎車) | shā chē | to brake (when driving); to stop |
| 一刹那 (一剎那) | yī chà nà | a moment; an instant |
| 古刹 (古剎) | gǔ chà | old Buddhist temple |
| 什刹海 (什剎海) | shí chà hǎi | Shichahai, scenic area of northwest Beijing with three lakes |
| 急刹车 (急剎車) | jí shā chē | emergency braking |
| 那么 (那麼) | nà me | like that; in that way; to that extent; (before a number) ... or so; about ... |
| 那些 | nà xiē | those |
| 那个 (那個) | nà ge | that one; that thing |
See also: Japanese symbol for “instant”.
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.