King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “prelude”

前奏
qián zòu
prelude; presage

The closest CC-CEDICT match for prelude is 前奏 (qián zòu), defined as: prelude; presage.

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

前 qián
in front, forward; former, preceding
radical 18 ⼑ · 9 strokes
奏 zòu
to play; to memorialize; to report
radical 37 ⼤ · 9 strokes

Other Chinese words for “prelude”

WordPinyinMeaning
前奏曲qián zòu qǔprelude (music)
序言xù yánpreface; introductory remarks; preamble; prelude

Related words

Other words that share a character with 前奏.

WordPinyinMeaning
目前mù qiánat the present time; currently
之前zhī qiánbefore; prior to
以前yǐ qiánbefore; formerly
前往qián wǎngto leave for; to proceed towards; to go to
面前miàn qiánin front of; facing
当前 (當前)dāng qiánthe present time; to be faced with
节奏 (節奏)jié zòurhythm; tempo
演奏yǎn zòuto perform on a musical instrument

See also: Japanese symbol for “prelude”.

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.