King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “prior”

Romaji: jizen
prior; beforehand; in advance; before the fact

In Japanese, prior is , read (jizen).

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 prior; beforehand; in advance; before the fact; ex ante

Kanji and stroke order

matter, thing, fact
on: ジ、ズ
kun: こと、つか.う、つか.える
8 strokes · JLPT 3
in front, before
on: ゼン
kun: まえ、-まえ
9 strokes · JLPT 4

Other Japanese words for “prior”

WordReadingMeaning
まえ maebefore; earlier; previously
ありし arishiprior; past; old
さき sakiprevious; prior; former
しゅういんちょう shuuinchouprelate; prior; abbot
しゅうどういんちょう shuudouinchouhead of a monastic institution; abbot; prior

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
しごと shigotowork; job; labor
じけん jikenevent; affair; incident
きじ kijiarticle; news story; report
じぎょう jigyoubusiness; enterprise; venture
じこ jikoaccident; incident; trouble
じじつ jijitsufact; truth; reality
なまえ namaename
いぜん izenbefore; prior to; ago

See also: Chinese symbol for “prior”.

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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