Chinese symbol for “owe”
欠
qiàn
to owe; to lack; (literary) to be deficient in; (bound form) yawn
The closest CC-CEDICT match for owe is 欠 (qiàn), defined as: to owe; to lack; (literary) to be deficient in; (bound form) yawn; to raise slightly (a part of one's body).
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
Other Chinese words for “owe”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 该 (該) | gāi | should; ought to |
| 亏欠 (虧欠) | kuī qiàn | to have a deficit; to be in the red; to owe |
| 逋 | bū | to flee; to abscond |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 欠.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 欠缺 | qiàn quē | to be deficient in; lapse |
| 拖欠 | tuō qiàn | in arrears; behind in payments |
| 亏欠 (虧欠) | kuī qiàn | to have a deficit; to be in the red; to owe |
| 欠佳 | qiàn jiā | suboptimal; subpar |
| 欠债 (欠債) | qiàn zhài | to owe a debt; the sum owed |
| 欠款 | qiàn kuǎn | to owe a debt; balance due |
See also: Japanese symbol for “owe”.
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.