Chinese symbol for “recalcitrant”
乖张
guāi zhāng
Traditional: 乖張
recalcitrant; unreasonable; peevish
The closest CC-CEDICT match for recalcitrant is 乖张 (guāi zhāng), defined as: recalcitrant; unreasonable; peevish.
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 “recalcitrant”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 婼 | chuò | recalcitrant |
| 蛮皮 (蠻皮) | mán pí | recalcitrant; obstreperous |
| 遻 | wù | recalcitrant; to encounter |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 乖张.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 乖乖 | guāi guāi | (of a child) well-behaved; obediently |
| 乖巧 | guāi qiǎo | clever (child); smart |
| 乖乖女 | guāi guāi nǚ | well-behaved girl; good girl |
| 乖戾 | guāi lì | perverse (behavior); disagreeable (character) |
| 主张 (主張) | zhǔ zhāng | to advocate; to stand for |
| 紧张 (緊張) | jǐn zhāng | nervous; keyed up |
| 扩张 (擴張) | kuò zhāng | expansion; dilation |
| 夸张 (誇張) | kuā zhāng | to exaggerate; overstated; exaggerated |
See also: Japanese symbol for “recalcitrant”.
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.