King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “substitution”

代谢
dài xiè
Traditional: 代謝
replacement; substitution; metabolism (biol.)

The closest CC-CEDICT match for substitution is 代谢 (dài xiè), defined as: replacement; substitution; metabolism (biol.).

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

代 dài
era, generation; to substitute for, to replace
radical 9 ⼈ · 5 strokes
谢 xiè
to thank; to refuse politely
radical 149 ⾔ · 12 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “substitution”

WordPinyinMeaning
换人 (換人)huàn rénto replace sb (personnel, sports team player etc); substitution
更代gēng dàisubstitution; replacing former general
取代qǔ dàito replace; to supersede

Related words

Other words that share a character with 代谢.

WordPinyinMeaning
代表dài biǎorepresentative; delegate
时代 (時代)shí dàiage; era
年代nián dàia decade of a century (e.g. the Sixties); age
现代 (現代)xiàn dàimodern times; modern age
代理dài lǐto act on behalf of sb in a responsible position; to act as an agent or proxy
古代gǔ dàiancient times
谢谢 (謝謝)xiè xieto thank; thanks
感谢 (感謝)gǎn xièto thank; to be grateful

See also: Japanese symbol for “substitution”.

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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