Chinese symbol for “alternate”
轮流
lún liú
Traditional: 輪流
to alternate; to take turns
The closest CC-CEDICT match for alternate is 轮流 (lún liú), defined as: to alternate; to take turns.
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 “alternate”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 更迭 | gēng dié | to alternate; to change |
| 相间 (相間) | xiāng jiàn | to alternate; to follow one another |
| 错 (錯) | cuò | mistake; wrong |
| 变换 (變換) | biàn huàn | to transform; to convert |
| 备用 (備用) | bèi yòng | reserve; spare |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 轮流.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 轮胎 (輪胎) | lún tāi | tire; pneumatic tire |
| 一轮 (一輪) | yī lún | first round or stage (of a match, election, talks, planned policy etc) |
| 涡轮 (渦輪) | wō lún | turbine |
| 第二轮 (第二輪) | dì èr lún | second round (of match, or election) |
| 轮椅 (輪椅) | lún yǐ | wheelchair |
| 交流 | jiāo liú | to exchange; exchange |
| 流行 | liú xíng | (of a contagious disease etc) to spread; to propagate; (of a style of clothing, song etc) popular; fashionable |
| 主流 | zhǔ liú | main stream (of a river); fig. the essential point |
See also: Japanese symbol for “alternate”.
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.