King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “hesitate”

犹豫
yóu yù
Traditional: 猶豫
to hesitate

The closest CC-CEDICT match for hesitate is 犹豫 (yóu yù), defined as: to hesitate.

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

犹 yóu
similar to, just like, as
radical 94 ⽝ · 7 strokes
豫 yù
relaxed; hesitant
radical 152 ⾗ · 15 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “hesitate”

WordPinyinMeaning
迟疑 (遲疑)chí yíto hesitate
犹疑 (猶疑)yóu yíto hesitate
踌躇 (躊躇)chóu chúto hesitate; (literary) to pace back and forth
彷徨páng huángto pace back and forth, not knowing which way to turn; to hesitate; to waver
犯嘀咕fàn dí guto hesitate; to have second thoughts

Related words

Other words that share a character with 犹豫.

WordPinyinMeaning
犹如 (猶如)yóu rúsimilar to; like
毫不犹豫 (毫不猶豫)háo bù yóu yùwithout the slightest hesitation
犹豫不决 (猶豫不決)yóu yù bù juéhesitancy; indecision
记忆犹新 (記憶猶新)jì yì yóu xīnto remain fresh in one's memory (idiom)
意犹未尽 (意猶未盡)yì yóu wèi jìnto wish to continue sth; to have not fully expressed oneself
不豫bù yù(literary) unhappy; displeased
冘豫yóu yùvariant of 犹豫 (yóu yù)
豫告yù gàovariant of 预告 (yù gào); to forecast

See also: Japanese symbol for “hesitate”.

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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