Chinese symbol for “past”
过去
guò qù
Traditional: 過去
(in the) past; former; previous; to go over; to pass by
The closest CC-CEDICT match for past is 过去 (guò qù), defined as: (in the) past; former; previous; to go over; to pass by.
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 “past”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 往前 | wǎng qián | (in) the past; ahead; forward; in the future |
| 往昔 | wǎng xī | the past |
| 既往 | jì wǎng | past; bygone |
| 已往 | yǐ wǎng | the past |
| 往 | wǎng | to go (in a direction); to |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 过去.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 通过 (通過) | tōng guò | to pass through; to get through; to adopt (a resolution); to pass (legislation) |
| 不过 (不過) | bù guò | only; merely |
| 过程 (過程) | guò chéng | course of events; process |
| 超过 (超過) | chāo guò | to surpass; to exceed |
| 失去 | shī qù | to lose |
| 去年 | qù nián | last year |
| 下去 | xià qù | to go down; to descend |
| 出去 | chū qù | to go out |
See also: Japanese symbol for “past”.
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.