Chinese symbol for “reprehensible”

缺德

quē dé

mean; nasty; reprehensible; unprincipled

The closest CC-CEDICT match for reprehensible is 缺德 (quē dé), defined as: mean; nasty; reprehensible; unprincipled.

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

缺 quē

to lack, to be short; vacancy, gap, deficit

radical 121 ⽸ · 10 strokes

德 dé

ethics, morality; compassion, kindness

radical 60 ⼻ · 15 strokes

Other Chinese words for “reprehensible”

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
罪大恶极 (罪大惡極)	zuì dà è jí	guilty of terrible crimes (idiom); reprehensible

Related words

Other words that share a character with 缺德.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
缺乏	quē fá	to lack; to be short of
缺少	quē shǎo	lack; shortage of
缺点 (缺點)	quē diǎn	weak point; fault
缺陷	quē xiàn	defect; flaw
短缺	duǎn quē	shortage
缺席	quē xí	to be absent
道德	dào dé	virtue; morality
品德	pǐn dé	moral character

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.