King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “piecemeal”

零星
líng xīng
fragmentary; piecemeal; in bits and pieces; sporadic; scattered

The closest CC-CEDICT match for piecemeal is 零星 (líng xīng), defined as: fragmentary; piecemeal; in bits and pieces; sporadic; scattered.

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

零 líng
zero; fragment, fraction
radical 173 ⾬ · 13 strokes
星 xīng
star, planet; a point of light
radical 72 ⽇ · 9 strokes

Other Chinese words for “piecemeal”

WordPinyinMeaning
零零星星líng líng xīng xīngodd; piecemeal

Related words

Other words that share a character with 零星.

WordPinyinMeaning
零售líng shòuto retail; to sell in small quantities
零件líng jiànpart; component
零部件líng bù jiànspare part; component
零食líng shísnack; nibbles
零钱 (零錢)líng qiánchange (of money); small change
星期xīng qīweek; 个 (gè)
明星míng xīngstar; celebrity
卫星 (衛星)wèi xīng(aerospace) satellite; (astronomy) satellite; moon

See also: Japanese symbol for “piecemeal”.

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.