Chinese symbol for “intolerable”

要不得

yào bu de

intolerable; unacceptable

The closest CC-CEDICT match for intolerable is 要不得 (yào bu de), defined as: intolerable; unacceptable.

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

要 yào

essential, necessary; to ask for; to coerce; to demand

radical 146 ⾑ · 9 strokes

不 bu

no, not, un-; negative prefix

radical 1 ⼀ · 4 strokes

得 de

to obtain, to get, to acquire; suitable, proper; ready

radical 60 ⼻ · 11 strokes

Related words

Other words that share a character with 要不得.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
需要	xū yào	to need; to want; to demand; to require; needs
主要	zhǔ yào	main; principal; major; primary
重要	zhòng yào	important; significant; major
要求	yāo qiú	to request; to require
不要	bù yào	don't!; must not
只要	zhǐ yào	so long as; provided; if
不是	bù shì	no; is not
不能	bù néng	cannot; must not
觉得 (覺得)	jué de	to think that ...; to feel that ...; to feel (uncomfortable etc)

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.