King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “imperative”

势在必行
shì zài bì xíng
Traditional: 勢在必行
circumstances require action (idiom); absolutely necessary; imperative

The closest CC-CEDICT match for imperative is 势在必行 (shì zài bì xíng), defined as: circumstances require action (idiom); absolutely necessary; imperative.

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

势 shì
power, force; tendency, attitude
radical 19 ⼒ · 8 strokes
在 zài
at, in, on; to exist; used to indicate the present progressive tense
radical 32 ⼟ · 6 strokes
必 bì
surely, certainly; must; will
radical 61 ⼼ · 5 strokes
行 xíng
to go, to walk, to move; professional
radical 144 ⾏ · 6 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “imperative”

WordPinyinMeaning
急迫jí pòurgent; pressing
眉睫méi jiéeyebrows and eyelashes; (fig.) close at hand; urgent; pressing; imperative

Related words

Other words that share a character with 势在必行.

WordPinyinMeaning
优势 (優勢)yōu shìsuperiority; dominance
势力 (勢力)shì lipower; influence
趋势 (趨勢)qū shìtrend; tendency
形势 (形勢)xíng shìcircumstances; situation
局势 (局勢)jú shìsituation; state (of affairs)
姿势 (姿勢)zī shìposture; position
现在 (現在)xiàn zàinow; at present; currently
存在cún zàito exist; to be
必须 (必須)bì xūmust; to have to
进行 (進行)jìn xíng(of a process etc) to proceed; to be in progress; to be underway; (of people) to carry out; to conduct (an investigation or discussion etc)

See also: Japanese symbol for “imperative”.

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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