Chinese symbol for “preferably”
宁可
nìng kě
Traditional: 寧可
preferably; one would prefer to...(or not to...); would rather; (would) be better to
The closest CC-CEDICT match for preferably is 宁可 (nìng kě), defined as: preferably; one would prefer to...(or not to...); would rather; (would) be better to; (to pick) the lesser of two evils.
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
Related words
Other words that share a character with 宁可.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 宁愿 (寧願) | nìng yuàn | would rather ... (than ...) |
| 宁静 (寧靜) | níng jìng | tranquil; tranquility |
| 安宁 (安寧) | ān níng | peaceful; tranquil |
| 宁肯 (寧肯) | nìng kěn | would rather...; it would be better... |
| 丁宁 (丁寧) | dīng níng | variant of 叮咛 (dīng níng) |
| 可以 | kě yǐ | can; may |
| 可能 | kě néng | might (happen); possible |
| 可是 | kě shì | but; however; (used for emphasis) indeed |
See also: Japanese symbol for “preferably”.
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.