King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “unfavorable”

Romaji: son
loss; damage; harm; unprofitable

In Japanese, unfavorable is , read (son).

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.

Meanings

  1. adj-na, n, vi loss; damage; harm; unprofitable
  2. adj-na, n disadvantage; handicap; drawback; unfavorable

Kanji and stroke order

damage, loss, disadvantage
on: ソン
kun: そこ.なう、そこな.う、-そこ.なう、そこ.ねる
13 strokes · JLPT 2

Other Japanese words for “unfavorable”

WordReadingMeaning
まずい mazuiawkward; problematic; troublesome
かんばしくない kanbashikunaipoor; not satisfactory; undesirable
ひきょう hikyouunreasonable; unfavorable

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
そんがい songaidamage; injury; loss
そんしつ sonshitsuloss (of assets, profit, etc.)
はそん hasondamage; breakage
そんしょう sonshoudamage; injury
そこなう sokonauto harm; to hurt; to injure
そんえき son'ekiprofit and loss; advantage and disadvantage

See also: Chinese symbol for “unfavorable”.

Data: JMdict (CC BY-SA 4.0); KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.