King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “bc”

前
qián
front; forward; ahead; first

The closest CC-CEDICT match for bc is 前 (qián), defined as: front; forward; ahead; first; top (followed by a number); future.

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

前 qián
in front, forward; former, preceding
radical 18 ⼑ · 9 strokes

Other Chinese words for “bc”

WordPinyinMeaning
公元前gōng yuán qiánBCE (before the Common Era); BC (before Christ)
西元前xī yuán qiánBCE (before the Common Era); BC (before Christ)

Related words

Other words that share a character with 前.

WordPinyinMeaning
目前mù qiánat the present time; currently
之前zhī qiánbefore; prior to
以前yǐ qiánbefore; formerly
前往qián wǎngto leave for; to proceed towards; to go to
面前miàn qiánin front of; facing
当前 (當前)dāng qiánthe present time; to be faced with

See also: Japanese symbol for “bc”.

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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