Chinese symbol for “shortfall”

缺少

quē shǎo

lack; shortage of; shortfall; to be short (of)

The closest CC-CEDICT match for shortfall is 缺少 (quē shǎo), defined as: lack; shortage of; shortfall; to be short (of); to lack.

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

缺 quē

to lack, to be short; vacancy, gap, deficit

radical 121 ⽸ · 10 strokes

少 shǎo

few, little; less; inadequate

radical 42 ⼩ · 4 strokes

Other Chinese words for “shortfall”

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
缺口	quē kǒu	nick; jag

Related words

Other words that share a character with 缺少.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
缺乏	quē fá	to lack; to be short of
缺点 (缺點)	quē diǎn	weak point; fault
缺陷	quē xiàn	defect; flaw
短缺	duǎn quē	shortage
缺席	quē xí	to be absent
多少	duō shǎo	number; amount; somewhat
减少 (減少)	jiǎn shǎo	to lessen; to decrease; to reduce; to lower
至少	zhì shǎo	at least; (to say the) least

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.