King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “perfunctory”

苟且
gǒu qiě
perfunctory; careless; drifting along; resigned to one's fate

The closest CC-CEDICT match for perfunctory is 苟且 (gǒu qiě), defined as: perfunctory; careless; drifting along; resigned to one's fate; improper (relations); illicit (sex).

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

苟 gǒu
careless, frivolous, illicit; but, if only
radical 140 ⾋ · 9 strokes
且 qiě
moreover, also (post-subject); about to, will soon (pre-verb)
radical 1 ⼀ · 5 strokes

Other Chinese words for “perfunctory”

WordPinyinMeaning
含糊hán huambiguous; vague
敷衍fū yǎnto elaborate (on a theme); to expound (the classics)
不痛不痒 (不痛不癢)bù tòng bù yǎnglit. doesn't hurt, doesn't tickle (idiom); sth is wrong, but not quite sure what; fig. not getting to any matter of substance
有一搭没一搭 (有一搭沒一搭)yǒu yī dā méi yī dāunimportant; perfunctory

Related words

Other words that share a character with 苟且.

WordPinyinMeaning
苟延残喘 (苟延殘喘)gǒu yán cán chuǎn(idiom) to struggle on whilst at death's door
一丝不苟 (一絲不苟)yī sī bù gǒunot one thread loose (idiom); strictly according to the rules; meticulous
苟同gǒu tóngto agree blindly
苟活gǒu huóto live without dignity; to barely sustain oneself
苟且偷生gǒu qiě tōu shēngto drift and live without purpose (idiom); to drag out an ignoble existence
而且ér qiě(not only ...) but also; moreover; in addition; furthermore
并且 (並且)bìng qiěand; besides; moreover; furthermore; in addition
况且 (況且)kuàng qiěmoreover; besides

See also: Japanese symbol for “perfunctory”.

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.

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