Chinese symbol for “probably”
该
gāi
Traditional: 該
should; ought to; probably; must be
The closest CC-CEDICT match for probably is 该 (gāi), defined as: should; ought to; probably; must be; to deserve; to owe.
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
Other Chinese words for “probably”
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 大约 (大約) | dà yuē | approximately; probably |
| 大概 | dà gài | roughly; probably |
| 莫不是 | mò bù shì | probably; perhaps |
| 想必 | xiǎng bì | presumably; probably |
| 大半 | dà bàn | more than half; greater part |
Related words
Other words that share a character with 该.
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 应该 (應該) | yīng gāi | ought to; should; must |
| 不该 (不該) | bù gāi | should not |
| 该死 (該死) | gāi sǐ | Damn it!; damned |
| 活该 (活該) | huó gāi | (coll.) serve sb right; deservedly |
| 该当 (該當) | gāi dāng | should; to deserve |
| 罪该万死 (罪該萬死) | zuì gāi wàn sǐ | (idiom) deserving the severest punishment; death is too good for sb |
See also: Japanese symbol for “probably”.
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.