King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “inversion”

Romaji: zengo
front and rear; front and back; before and behind; back and forth

In Japanese, inversion is , read (zengo).

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. n front and rear; front and back; before and behind; back and forth
  2. n before and after
  3. adv, n, n-suf around; about; approximately
  4. n order; context
  5. n consequences
  6. n just when; around the time of

Kanji and stroke order

in front, before
on: ゼン
kun: まえ、-まえ
9 strokes · JLPT 4
behind, back, later
on: ゴ、コウ
kun: のち、うし.ろ、うしろ、あと
9 strokes · JLPT 4

Other Japanese words for “inversion”

WordReadingMeaning
てんか tenkachange; transformation; inversion
てんとう tentouinversion; reversal; turning upside-down
とうさく tousakuinversion
はんてん hantenturning around (the other way); reversal (of direction, course, etc.); inversion
てんかい tenkaiinversion

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
なまえ namaename
いぜん izenbefore; prior to; ago
おまえ omaeyou
ぜんかい zenkaiprevious time; last time; previous installment
ごぜん gozenmorning; a.m.
あたりまえ atarimaenatural; reasonable; obvious
さいご saigoend; conclusion
こんご kongofrom now on; hereafter

See also: Chinese symbol for “inversion”.

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.

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