Chinese symbol for “short”
短
duǎn
short; brief; to lack; weak point
The closest CC-CEDICT match for short is 短 (duǎn), defined as: short; brief; to lack; weak point; fault.
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
Other Chinese words for “short”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 矮 | ǎi | (of a person) short; (of a wall etc) low |
| 低矮 | dī ǎi | short; low |
| 矬 | cuó | short; dwarfish |
| 空头 (空頭) | kōng tóu | phony; so-called |
| 小结 (小結) | xiǎo jié | summary; short |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 短.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 短期 | duǎn qī | short-term |
| 短片 | duǎn piàn | short film; video clip |
| 短暂 (短暫) | duǎn zàn | of short duration; brief; momentary |
| 缩短 (縮短) | suō duǎn | to shorten; to reduce; to curtail |
| 短缺 | duǎn quē | shortage |
| 短信 | duǎn xìn | text message; SMS |
See also: Japanese symbol for “short”.
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.