King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “uncertainty”

未知数
wèi zhī shù
Traditional: 未知數
unknown number; (fig.) an unknown; an uncertainty

The closest CC-CEDICT match for uncertainty is 未知数 (wèi zhī shù), defined as: unknown number; (fig.) an unknown; an uncertainty.

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

未 wèi
not yet; 8th terrestrial branch
radical 75 ⽊ · 5 strokes
知 zhī
to know, to perceive, to comprehend
radical 111 ⽮ · 8 strokes
数 shù
count, number, several
radical 66 ⽁ · 13 strokes

Traditional forms

Related words

Other words that share a character with 未知数.

WordPinyinMeaning
未来 (未來)wèi láifuture; tomorrow
尚未shàng wèinot yet; still not
从未 (從未)cóng wèinever
并未 (並未)bìng wèi(used to stress that sth did not turn out as one might have expected) did not actually ...; has not actually ...
未能wèi néngcannot; to fail to
未经 (未經)wèi jīngnot having undergone; without (having gone though a certain process)
知道zhī dàoto know; to become aware of; also pr. [zhi1dao5]
知识 (知識)zhī shiknowledge; 门 (mén)
数据 (數據)shù jùdata

See also: Japanese symbol for “uncertainty”.

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.