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.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
困难 (困難)	kùn nan	difficult; challenging
难道 (難道)	nán dào	don't tell me ...; could it be that...?
难以 (難以)	nán yǐ	hard to (predict, imagine etc)
难过 (難過)	nán guò	to feel sad; to feel unwell
难民 (難民)	nàn mín	refugee
灾难 (災難)	zāi nàn	disaster; catastrophe
可以	kě yǐ	can; may
以及	yǐ jí	and; as well as
因为 (因為)	yīn wèi	because; owing to; on account of
继续 (繼續)	jì xù	to 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.