King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “priority”

先后
xiān hòu
Traditional: 先後
early or late; first and last; priority; in succession; one after another

The closest CC-CEDICT match for priority is 先后 (xiān hòu), defined as: early or late; first and last; priority; in succession; one after another.

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
后 hòu
after; behind, rear; descendants
radical 30 ⼝ · 6 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “priority”

WordPinyinMeaning
缓急 (緩急)huǎn jípriority; whether sth is urgent
重心zhòng xīnfocus; emphasis; priority; (physics) center of gravity

Related words

Other words that share a character with 先后.

WordPinyinMeaning
先生xiān shengteacher; gentleman; sir; mister (Mr.)
首先shǒu xiānfirst of all; in the first place
先进 (先進)xiān jìnsophisticated; advanced (technology etc); meritorious; exemplary (deeds etc)
优先 (優先)yōu xiānto have priority; to take precedence
领先 (領先)lǐng xiānto lead; to be in front
最后 (最後)zuì hòufinal; last; ultimate; finally; in the end
之后 (之後)zhī hòuafter; behind; (at the beginning of a sentence) afterwards; since then
然后 (然後)rán hòuthen; after that; afterwards

See also: Japanese symbol for “priority”.

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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