King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “unsustainable”

难以为继
nán yǐ wéi jì
Traditional: 難以為繼
(idiom) difficult to carry on; unsustainable

The closest CC-CEDICT match for unsustainable is 难以为继 (nán yǐ wéi jì), defined as: (idiom) difficult to carry on; unsustainable.

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

难 nán
hard, difficult, arduous; unable
radical 172 ⾫ · 10 strokes
以 yǐ
according to; so as to; because of; then
radical 9 ⼈ · 5 strokes
为 wéi
to do, to act; to handle, to govern; to be
radical 3 ⼂ · 4 strokes
继 jì
to continue, to carry on; to succeed, to inherit
radical 120 ⽷ · 10 strokes

Traditional forms

Related words

Other words that share a character with 难以为继.

WordPinyinMeaning
困难 (困難)kùn nandifficult; challenging
难道 (難道)nán dàodon't tell me ...; could it be that...?
难以 (難以)nán yǐhard to (predict, imagine etc)
难过 (難過)nán guòto feel sad; to feel unwell
难民 (難民)nàn mínrefugee
灾难 (災難)zāi nàndisaster; catastrophe
可以kě yǐcan; may
以及yǐ jíand; as well as
因为 (因為)yīn wèibecause; owing to; on account of
继续 (繼續)jì xùto continue; to proceed with; to go on with

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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