King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “residual”

残留
cán liú
Traditional: 殘留
to remain; to be left over; residual; remnant; residue

The closest CC-CEDICT match for residual is 残留 (cán liú), defined as: to remain; to be left over; residual; remnant; residue.

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

残 cán
to injure, to ruin, to spoil; cruel, oppressive, savage; disabled, inc
radical 78 ⽍ · 9 strokes
留 liú
to stay, to remain; to preserve, to keep; to leave a message;
radical 102 ⽥ · 10 strokes

Traditional forms

Related words

Other words that share a character with 残留.

WordPinyinMeaning
残酷 (殘酷)cán kùcruel; harsh; merciless
残忍 (殘忍)cán rěncruel; merciless; ruthless
残疾 (殘疾)cán jídisabled; handicapped
残疾人 (殘疾人)cán jí réndisabled person
残暴 (殘暴)cán bàobrutal; vicious; ruthless
留下liú xiàto leave behind; to stay behind
保留bǎo liúto keep; to retain
留言liú yánto leave a message; to leave one's comments; message

See also: Japanese symbol for “residual”.

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.