King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “first”

一次
yī cì
first; first time; once; (math.) linear (of degree one)

The closest CC-CEDICT match for first is 一次 (yī cì), defined as: first; first time; once; (math.) linear (of degree one).

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

一 yī
one; a, an; alone
radical 1 ⼀ · 1 strokes
次 cì
order, sequence; second, next; one after the other
radical 76 ⽋ · 6 strokes

Other Chinese words for “first”

WordPinyinMeaning
第一dì yīfirst; most important; primary; foremost
首次shǒu cìfirst; first time
原始yuán shǐfirst; original
最初zuì chūfirst; primary
先xiānbeforehand; first; earlier; at first; originally

Related words

Other words that share a character with 一次.

WordPinyinMeaning
一个 (一個)yī gea; an; one; the whole (afternoon, summer vacation etc)
一些yī xiēsome; a few; a little; (following an adjective) slightly ...er
一样 (一樣)yī yàngsame; like
一定yī dìngsurely; certainly; definitely; fixed; settled
一起yī qǐ(in) the same place; together; in company (with)
一直yī zhístraight (in a straight line); continuously; always; all the way through
第一次dì yī cìthe first time; for the first time
再次zài cìonce more; once again

See also: Japanese symbol for “first”.

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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