Chinese symbol for “wither”
萎缩
wěi suō
Traditional: 萎縮
to wither; to dry up (of a plant); to atrophy (of muscle, social custom etc)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for wither is 萎缩 (wěi suō), defined as: to wither; to dry up (of a plant); to atrophy (of muscle, social custom etc).
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 “wither”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 凋谢 (凋謝) | diāo xiè | to wither; to wilt |
| 萎 | wěi | to wither; to drop |
| 凋落 | diāo luò | to wither (and drop off); to wilt |
| 零 | líng | zero; nought |
| 谢 (謝) | xiè | to thank; (bound form) to apologize |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 萎缩.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 枯萎 | kū wěi | to wilt; to wither |
| 萎靡 | wěi mǐ | listless; dispirited; lacking in vigor; languishing |
| 萎靡不振 | wěi mǐ bù zhèn | dispirited and listless (idiom); downcast |
| 阳萎 (陽萎) | yáng wěi | variant of 阳痿 (yáng wěi) |
| 枯萎病 | kū wěi bìng | blight |
| 缩短 (縮短) | suō duǎn | to shorten; to reduce; to curtail |
| 缩小 (縮小) | suō xiǎo | to reduce; to decrease; to shrink |
| 压缩 (壓縮) | yā suō | to compress; compression |
See also: Japanese symbol for “wither”.
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.