Chinese symbol for “youngster”
少年
shào nián
early youth; youngster; (literary) youth; young man
The closest CC-CEDICT match for youngster is 少年 (shào nián), defined as: early youth; youngster; (literary) youth; young man.
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
Other Chinese words for “youngster”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 年轻人 (年輕人) | nián qīng rén | young people; youngster |
| 小子 | xiǎo zǐ | (literary) youngster; (old) young fellow (term of address used by the older generation) |
| 小伙 | xiǎo huǒ | young guy; lad |
| 小登 | xiǎo dēng | (slang) youngster; kid (humorous or self-deprecating neologism derived from 老登 (lǎo dēng), established since c. 2022) |
| 小屁孩 | xiǎo pì hái | kid; youngster |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 少年.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 多少 | duō shǎo | number; amount; somewhat |
| 减少 (減少) | jiǎn shǎo | to lessen; to decrease; to reduce; to lower |
| 至少 | zhì shǎo | at least; (to say the) least |
| 不少 | bù shǎo | many; quite a few; a good number of |
| 少数 (少數) | shǎo shù | small number; few |
| 年代 | nián dài | a decade of a century (e.g. the Sixties); age |
| 今年 | jīn nián | this year |
| 每年 | měi nián | every year; each year |
See also: Japanese symbol for “youngster”.
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.