King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “shortage”

短缺
duǎn quē
shortage

The closest CC-CEDICT match for shortage is 短缺 (duǎn quē), defined as: shortage.

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

短 duǎn
brief, short; deficient, lacking
radical 111 ⽮ · 12 strokes
缺 quē
to lack, to be short; vacancy, gap, deficit
radical 121 ⽸ · 10 strokes

Other Chinese words for “shortage”

WordPinyinMeaning
荒huāngdesolate; shortage

Related words

Other words that share a character with 短缺.

WordPinyinMeaning
短期duǎn qīshort-term
短片duǎn piànshort film; video clip
短暂 (短暫)duǎn zànof short duration; brief; momentary
缩短 (縮短)suō duǎnto shorten; to reduce; to curtail
短信duǎn xìntext message; SMS
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 “shortage”.

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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