Chinese symbol for “trouble”
麻烦
má fan
Traditional: 麻煩
trouble; inconvenience; inconvenient; troublesome; annoying; to bother sb; to put sb to trouble
The closest CC-CEDICT match for trouble is 麻烦 (má fan), defined as: trouble; inconvenience; inconvenient; troublesome; annoying; to bother sb; to put sb to trouble.
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
Other Chinese words for “trouble”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 难处 (難處) | nán chu | trouble; difficulty; problem |
| 娄子 (婁子) | lóu zi | trouble; blunder |
| 烦 (煩) | fán | to feel vexed; to bother |
| 失风 (失風) | shī fēng | trouble; damage |
| 患 | huàn | to suffer (from illness); to contract (a disease) |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 麻烦.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 大麻 | dà má | hemp (Cannabis sativa); cannabis |
| 麻将 (麻將) | má jiàng | mahjong; measure word: 局 (jú), 副 (fù) |
| 麻醉 | má zuì | anesthesia; to anesthetize; (fig.) to corrupt (sb's mind); to enervate; to numb the mind (to escape from harsh reality) |
| 麻木 | má mù | numb; insensitive |
| 麻雀 | má què | sparrow; (dialect) mahjong |
| 烦恼 (煩惱) | fán nǎo | to be worried; to be distressed |
| 厌烦 (厭煩) | yàn fán | bored; fed up with sth; sick of sth |
| 烦躁 (煩躁) | fán zào | jittery; twitchy |
See also: Japanese symbol for “trouble”.
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.