Chinese symbol for “ought”
当
dāng
Traditional: 當
to be; to act as; manage; withstand
The closest CC-CEDICT match for ought is 当 (dāng), defined as: to be; to act as; manage; withstand; when; during.
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 “ought”
Related words
Other words that share a character with 当.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 当时 (當時) | dāng shí | then; at that time |
| 当然 (當然) | dāng rán | only natural; as it should be |
| 当地 (當地) | dāng dì | local |
| 相当 (相當) | xiāng dāng | equivalent to; appropriate |
| 当年 (當年) | dāng nián | in those days; back then; in those years; to be in the prime of life |
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.