Chinese symbol for “epoch”
时代
shí dài
Traditional: 時代
age; era; epoch; period (in one's life)
The closest CC-CEDICT match for epoch is 时代 (shí dài), defined as: age; era; epoch; period (in one's life); 个 (gè).
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 “epoch”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 世 | shì | life; age |
| 年头 (年頭) | nián tóu | start of the year; whole year |
| 纪元 (紀元) | jì yuán | calendar era; epoch |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 时代.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 时间 (時間) | shí jiān | (concept of) time; (duration of) time |
| 时候 (時候) | shí hou | time; length of time |
| 同时 (同時) | tóng shí | at the same time; simultaneously |
| 当时 (當時) | dāng shí | then; at that time |
| 时期 (時期) | shí qī | period; phase |
| 代表 | dài biǎo | representative; delegate |
| 年代 | nián dài | a decade of a century (e.g. the Sixties); age |
| 现代 (現代) | xiàn dài | modern times; modern age |
See also: Japanese symbol for “epoch”.
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.