Chinese symbol for “schism”

分裂

fēn liè

to split up; to divide; to break up; fission

The closest CC-CEDICT match for schism is 分裂 (fēn liè), defined as: to split up; to divide; to break up; fission; schism.

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

分 fēn

to divide, to allocate; fraction; small unit of time or other quantity

radical 18 ⼑ · 4 strokes

裂 liè

to split, to rend; crevice, crack

radical 145 ⾐ · 12 strokes

Related words

Other words that share a character with 分裂.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
部分	bù fen	part; portion; piece; Taiwan pr. [bu4fen4]
分析	fēn xī	to analyze; analysis
分别 (分別)	fēn bié	to part; to leave each other; to distinguish; to tell apart
分钟 (分鐘)	fēn zhōng	minute
十分	shí fēn	very; completely
分享	fēn xiǎng	to share (esp. sth enjoyable, useful or beneficial)
破裂	pò liè	to burst; to rupture; (of a relationship etc) to break down
断裂 (斷裂)	duàn liè	fracture; rupture

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.