Chinese symbol for “stale”
陈
chén
Traditional: 陳
(bound form) to lay out; to exhibit; to display; (bound form) to narrate; to state; to explain; to tell; old; stale
The closest CC-CEDICT match for stale is 陈 (chén), defined as: (bound form) to lay out; to exhibit; to display; (bound form) to narrate; to state; to explain; to tell; old; stale.
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
Related words
Other words that share a character with 陈.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 陈述 (陳述) | chén shù | to state; to declare |
| 陈列 (陳列) | chén liè | to display; to exhibit |
| 陈旧 (陳舊) | chén jiù | old-fashioned; out of date; obsolete; antiquated |
| 新陈代谢 (新陳代謝) | xīn chén dài xiè | metabolism (biology); the new replaces the old (idiom) |
| 陈年 (陳年) | chén nián | (of wine) aged; (of debts etc) old; longstanding |
| 陈设 (陳設) | chén shè | to display; to exhibit; to set out; furnishings |
See also: Japanese symbol for “stale”.
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.