King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “preface”

序言
xù yán
preface; introductory remarks; preamble; prelude

The closest CC-CEDICT match for preface is 序言 (xù yán), defined as: preface; introductory remarks; preamble; prelude.

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

序 xù
order, sequence, series; preface
radical 53 ⼴ · 7 strokes
言 yán
words, speech; to speak, to say
radical 149 ⾔ · 7 strokes

Other Chinese words for “preface”

WordPinyinMeaning
前言qián yánpreface; foreword; introduction; preamble; earlier remarks; earlier words
序文xù wénpreface; foreword
序xù(bound form) order; sequence; (bound form) introductory; initial
序章xù zhāngprologue; preface
发刊词 (發刊詞)fā kān cíforeword; preface (to a publication)

Related words

Other words that share a character with 序言.

WordPinyinMeaning
程序chéng xùprocedures; sequence
秩序zhì xùorder; orderliness (in society, in the classroom, on the roads etc)
顺序 (順序)shùn xùsequence; order
应用程序 (應用程序)yìng yòng chéng xù(computing) program; application
序列xù lièsequence
排序pái xùto sort; to arrange in order
语言 (語言)yǔ yánlanguage; 门 (mén),种 (zhǒng)
而言ér yán(typically preceded by 就… (jiù xx) or 对… (duì xx) etc) as far as ... is concerned; speaking in terms of ...

See also: Japanese symbol for “preface”.

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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