King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “scarce”

稀缺
xī quē
scarce; scarcity

The closest CC-CEDICT match for scarce is 稀缺 (xī quē), defined as: scarce; scarcity.

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

稀 xī
rare, unusual; scarce, sparse
radical 115 ⽲ · 12 strokes
缺 quē
to lack, to be short; vacancy, gap, deficit
radical 121 ⽸ · 10 strokes

Other Chinese words for “scarce”

WordPinyinMeaning
紧张 (緊張)jǐn zhāngnervous; keyed up
缺quēdeficiency; lack
荒huāngdesolate; shortage
紧缺 (緊缺)jǐn quēin short supply; scarce
空匮 (空匱)kòng kuìscarce; poor

Related words

Other words that share a character with 稀缺.

WordPinyinMeaning
稀有xī yǒuuncommon; rare
稀少xī shǎosparse; rare
稀释 (稀釋)xī shìto dilute
稀奇xī qírare; strange
稀土xī tǔrare earth (chemistry)
缺乏quē fáto lack; to be short of
缺少quē shǎolack; shortage of
缺点 (缺點)quē diǎnweak point; fault

See also: Japanese symbol for “scarce”.

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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