King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

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

萎 wěi
to wither, to wilt
radical 140 ⾋ · 12 strokes
缩 suō
to withdraw, to shrink, to pull back; abbreviation
radical 120 ⽷ · 14 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “wither”

WordPinyinMeaning
凋谢 (凋謝)diāo xièto wither; to wilt
萎wěito wither; to drop
凋落diāo luòto wither (and drop off); to wilt
零língzero; nought
谢 (謝)xièto thank; (bound form) to apologize

Related words

Other words that share a character with 萎缩.

WordPinyinMeaning
枯萎kū wěito wilt; to wither
萎靡wěi mǐlistless; dispirited; lacking in vigor; languishing
萎靡不振wěi mǐ bù zhèndispirited and listless (idiom); downcast
阳萎 (陽萎)yáng wěivariant of 阳痿 (yáng wěi)
枯萎病kū wěi bìngblight
缩短 (縮短)suō duǎnto shorten; to reduce; to curtail
缩小 (縮小)suō xiǎoto reduce; to decrease; to shrink
压缩 (壓縮)yā suōto 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.

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