Chinese symbol for “preempt”

先发制人

xiān fā zhì rén

Traditional: 先發制人

(idiom) to gain the initiative by striking first; to preempt

The closest CC-CEDICT match for preempt is 先发制人 (xiān fā zhì rén), defined as: (idiom) to gain the initiative by striking first; to preempt.

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

先 xiān

first, former, previous

radical 10 ⼉ · 6 strokes

发 fā

to issue, to dispatch, to send out; hair

radical 29 ⼜ · 5 strokes

制 zhì

system; to establish; to manufacture; to overpower

radical 18 ⼑ · 8 strokes

人 rén

man, person; people

radical 9 ⼈ · 2 strokes

Traditional forms

發 fā

Related words

Other words that share a character with 先发制人.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
先生	xiān sheng	teacher; gentleman; sir; mister (Mr.)
首先	shǒu xiān	first of all; in the first place
先进 (先進)	xiān jìn	sophisticated; advanced (technology etc); meritorious; exemplary (deeds etc)
先后 (先後)	xiān hòu	early or late; first and last; priority; in succession; one after another
优先 (優先)	yōu xiān	to have priority; to take precedence
领先 (領先)	lǐng xiān	to lead; to be in front
发展 (發展)	fā zhǎn	development; growth
发生 (發生)	fā shēng	to happen; to occur; to take place; to arise (e.g. 发生问题 (fā shēng wèn tí) "a problem arises")
控制	kòng zhì	to control
人民	rén mín	the people

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.