King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “timid”

怯懦
qiè nuò
timid; cowardly; chicken-hearted

The closest CC-CEDICT match for timid is 怯懦 (qiè nuò), defined as: timid; cowardly; chicken-hearted.

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

怯 qiè
afraid, lacking in courage
radical 61 ⼼ · 8 strokes
懦 nuò
weak, timid, cowardly
radical 61 ⼼ · 17 strokes

Other Chinese words for “timid”

WordPinyinMeaning
怯qiètimid; cowardly
怕事pà shìtimid; to be afraid of getting involved
怯弱qiè ruòtimid; weak
胆小 (膽小)dǎn xiǎocowardice; timid
胆怯 (膽怯)dǎn qiètimidity; timid

Related words

Other words that share a character with 怯懦.

WordPinyinMeaning
胆怯 (膽怯)dǎn qiètimidity; timid
羞怯xiū qièshy; timid
怯场 (怯場)qiè chǎngto have stage fright
怯弱qiè ruòtimid; weak
畏怯wèi qiètimorous; nervous
懦弱nuò ruòcowardly; weak
懦夫nuò fūcoward
愚懦yú nuòignorant and timid

See also: Japanese symbol for “timid”.

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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