Chinese symbol for “shambles”
烂摊子
làn tān zi
Traditional: 爛攤子
terrible mess; shambles
The closest CC-CEDICT match for shambles is 烂摊子 (làn tān zi), defined as: terrible mess; shambles.
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 “shambles”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 烂摊子.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 灿烂 (燦爛) | càn làn | to glitter; brilliant |
| 腐烂 (腐爛) | fǔ làn | to rot; to putrefy |
| 破烂 (破爛) | pò làn | worn-out; dilapidated; tattered; ragged; (coll.) rubbish; junk |
| 糜烂 (糜爛) | mí làn | dissipated; rotten |
| 烂透 (爛透) | làn tòu | rotten to the core |
| 摊位 (攤位) | tān wèi | stall; booth; stand |
| 摊贩 (攤販) | tān fàn | stallkeeper; peddler |
| 分摊 (分攤) | fēn tān | to share (costs, responsibilities); to apportion |
| 孩子 | hái zi | child |
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.