King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “pretext”

由头
yóu tou
Traditional: 由頭
pretext; excuse; justification; reason

The closest CC-CEDICT match for pretext is 由头 (yóu tou), defined as: pretext; excuse; justification; reason.

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

由 yóu
cause, reason; from
radical 102 ⽥ · 5 strokes
头 tou
head; chief, boss; first, top
radical 37 ⼤ · 5 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “pretext”

WordPinyinMeaning
藉口jiè kǒuto use as an excuse; on the pretext
盾牌dùn páishield; pretext
说辞 (說辭)shuō cíexcuse; pretext
借口jiè kǒuto use as an excuse; excuse; pretext
挡箭牌 (擋箭牌)dǎng jiàn páiarrow-blocking shield; (fig.) pretext; cover; sth used to deflect blame, criticism or pressure

Related words

Other words that share a character with 由头.

WordPinyinMeaning
由于 (由於)yóu yúdue to; as a result of
自由zì yóufreedom; liberty; free; unrestricted
理由lǐ yóureason; grounds
由此yóu cǐhereby; from this
经由 (經由)jīng yóuvia
言论自由 (言論自由)yán lùn zì yóufreedom of speech
头发 (頭髮)tóu fahair (on the head)
街头 (街頭)jiē tóustreet

See also: Japanese symbol for “pretext”.

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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