King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Chinese symbol for “temporary”

暂时
zàn shí
Traditional: 暫時
temporary; provisional; for the time being

The closest CC-CEDICT match for temporary is 暂时 (zàn shí), defined as: temporary; provisional; for the time being.

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

暂 zàn
temporary
radical 72 ⽇ · 12 strokes
时 shí
time, season; period, era, age
radical 72 ⽇ · 7 strokes

Traditional forms

Other Chinese words for “temporary”

WordPinyinMeaning
暂 (暫)zàntemporary; Taiwan pr. [zhan4]
行xíng(bound form) to walk; to go; to travel; (literary) trip; journey; visit
权 (權)quánauthority; power
临时 (臨時)lín shías the time draws near; at the last moment
一时 (一時)yī shía period of time; a while

Related words

Other words that share a character with 暂时.

WordPinyinMeaning
暂停 (暫停)zàn tíngto suspend; time-out (e.g. in sports)
短暂 (短暫)duǎn zànof short duration; brief; momentary
暂缓 (暫緩)zàn huǎnto postpone
暂行 (暫行)zàn xíngprovisional
暂且 (暫且)zàn qiěfor now; for the time being; temporarily
时间 (時間)shí jiān(concept of) time; (duration of) time
时候 (時候)shí houtime; length of time
同时 (同時)tóng shíat the same time; simultaneously

See also: Japanese symbol for “temporary”.

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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