Chinese symbol for “era”
一代
yī dài
an era; an age; a generation
The closest CC-CEDICT match for era is 一代 (yī dài), defined as: an era; an age; a generation.
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 “era”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 元 | yuán | currency unit (esp. Chinese yuan); (bound form) first; original; primary |
| 时代 (時代) | shí dài | age; era |
| 年代 | nián dài | a decade of a century (e.g. the Sixties); age |
| 世 | shì | life; age |
| 世代 | shì dài | for many generations; generation |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 一代.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 一个 (一個) | yī ge | a; an; one; the whole (afternoon, summer vacation etc) |
| 一些 | yī xiē | some; a few; a little; (following an adjective) slightly ...er |
| 一样 (一樣) | yī yàng | same; like |
| 一定 | yī dìng | surely; certainly; definitely; fixed; settled |
| 一起 | yī qǐ | (in) the same place; together; in company (with) |
| 一直 | yī zhí | straight (in a straight line); continuously; always; all the way through |
| 代表 | dài biǎo | representative; delegate |
| 时代 (時代) | shí dài | age; era |
See also: Japanese symbol for “era”.
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.