King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “soft”

烂
làn
Traditional: 爛
soft; mushy; well-cooked and soft; to rot; to decompose; rotten

The closest CC-CEDICT match for soft is 烂 (làn), defined as: soft; mushy; well-cooked and soft; to rot; to decompose; rotten; worn out; chaotic; messy.

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

烂 làn
overcooked, overripe; rotten, spoiled
radical 86 ⽕ · 9 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “soft”

WordPinyinMeaning
软 (軟)ruǎnsoft; flexible
柔软 (柔軟)róu ruǎnsoft
柔róusoft; flexible
轻柔 (輕柔)qīng róusoft; gentle; pliable
软绵绵 (軟綿綿)ruǎn mián miánsoft; velvety

Related words

Other words that share a character with 烂.

WordPinyinMeaning
灿烂 (燦爛)càn lànto glitter; brilliant
腐烂 (腐爛)fǔ lànto rot; to putrefy
破烂 (破爛)pò lànworn-out; dilapidated; tattered; ragged; (coll.) rubbish; junk
烂摊子 (爛攤子)làn tān ziterrible mess; shambles
糜烂 (糜爛)mí làndissipated; rotten
烂透 (爛透)làn tòurotten to the core

See also: Japanese symbol for “soft”.

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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