King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “incrementally”

Romaji: zenji
gradually; slowly; little by little; incrementally

In Japanese, incrementally is , read (zenji).

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.

Meanings

  1. adj-no, adv gradually; slowly; little by little; incrementally

Written forms: . Readings: .

Kanji and stroke order

steadily, gradually advancing, finally
on: ゼン
kun: ようや.く、やや、ようよ.う、すす.む
14 strokes · JLPT 1
next, order, sequence
on: ジ、シ
kun: つ.ぐ、つぎ
6 strokes · JLPT 2

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
ぜんしん zenshingradual progress; steady advance
ぜんげん zengengradual decrease; decline
ようやく youyakufinally; at last
ぜんぞう zenzougradual increase
ぜんきん zenkinasymptote
じげん jigendimension
じかい jikainext time (occasion)
しだい shidaidepending on

Data: JMdict (CC BY-SA 4.0); KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.