King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “unanticipated”

无心插柳
wú xīn chā liǔ
Traditional: 無心插柳
(idiom) (of a good outcome) unanticipated; serendipitous; fortuitous

The closest CC-CEDICT match for unanticipated is 无心插柳 (wú xīn chā liǔ), defined as: (idiom) (of a good outcome) unanticipated; serendipitous; fortuitous.

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

无 wú
no, not; lacking, -less
radical 71 ⽆ · 4 strokes
心 xīn
heart; mind; soul
radical 61 ⼼ · 4 strokes
插 chā
to insert, to stick in; to pierce; to plant
radical 64 ⼿ · 12 strokes
柳 liǔ
willow tree; pleasure; surname
radical 75 ⽊ · 9 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “unanticipated”

WordPinyinMeaning
未料wèi liàoto not anticipate; to not expect

Related words

Other words that share a character with 无心插柳.

WordPinyinMeaning
无法 (無法)wú fǎunable to; incapable of
无论 (無論)wú lùnno matter what or how; regardless of whether...
毫无 (毫無)háo wúnot in the least; to completely lack
无限 (無限)wú xiànunlimited; unbounded; infinite
无关 (無關)wú guānunrelated; having nothing to do (with sth else)
无数 (無數)wú shùcountless; numberless
中心zhōng xīncenter; heart; core
担心 (擔心)dān xīnanxious; worried
插入chā rùto insert; to stick in; to plug in
柳树 (柳樹)liǔ shùwillow

See also: Japanese symbol for “unanticipated”.

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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