Chinese symbol for “widowed”
断弦
duàn xián
Traditional: 斷弦
widowed; lit. broken string, cf 琴瑟 (qín sè) qin and se, two instruments epitomizing marital harmony
The closest CC-CEDICT match for widowed is 断弦 (duàn xián), defined as: widowed; lit. broken string, cf 琴瑟 (qín sè) qin and se, two instruments epitomizing marital harmony.
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 “widowed”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 寡 | guǎ | few; scant |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 断弦.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 不断 (不斷) | bù duàn | unceasing; uninterrupted |
| 判断 (判斷) | pàn duàn | to judge; to determine; judgment |
| 垄断 (壟斷) | lǒng duàn | to monopolize |
| 中断 (中斷) | zhōng duàn | to cut short; to break off |
| 诊断 (診斷) | zhěn duàn | to diagnose |
| 切断 (切斷) | qiē duàn | to cut off; to sever |
| 和弦 | hé xián | (music) chord |
| 琴弦 | qín xián | string (of a stringed instrument) |
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.