The Chinese symbol for eternity — 永 (yǒng)

Where the character comes from

永 is a picture of a long river with its tributaries branching away. The sense of 'long' is spatial first and temporal afterwards.

How it is actually used

永远 is forever, 永久 is permanent, 永恒 is eternal or eternity, and 永生 is eternal life. All of them are two characters; 永 does not stand alone as an adverb.

Both glyphs above are set in whatever Chinese font your device uses, which is a 楷书-derived regular script — the same shape a printer or a tattoo studio's "Chinese font" will produce. Brush styles (行书 running, 草书 cursive, 篆书 seal) look substantially different and are worth commissioning from a calligrapher rather than approximating from a font. You can watch this character written stroke by stroke in the Stroke Order Animator or practise it on printable 田字格 sheets.

This is the part a symbol list leaves out, and it is the fastest way to feel what a character actually carries. Readings and meanings come from the same dictionary that powers the translator; tap any word for its full dictionary entry.

永 is one answer, not the answer. Which of these is right depends on what you mean by "eternity" — and that is usually the question worth settling before anything is written down permanently.

What is the Chinese symbol for eternity?

永 (yǒng) means forever and perpetual — and it has a claim no other character on this list has: its five strokes are the eight basic strokes of Chinese writing, which is why 永 is the first character a calligraphy student practises. The method has a name, 永字八法, the Eight Principles of Yong. It is written 永 and pronounced yǒng.

What does 永 not mean?

It does not mean eternity as a noun. 永恒 is that. 永 is a modifier: forever-something.

Is 永 commonly mistranslated?

Yes. The claim you will meet most often is: "永 means eternity." 永恒 is the noun. A lone 永 reads as a prefix — recognisable and meaningful, but grammatically incomplete. This page lists 2 such claims about 永 with what is true instead.

Is 永 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?

永 is the same in simplified and traditional Chinese, five strokes. Because it contains one instance of each fundamental stroke type — dot, horizontal, vertical, hook, rise, and the three sweeps — it is the standard exercise character in every script style, and a rendering of it tells you more about the calligrapher than almost any other single character would.

What else can I use for eternity in Chinese?

Depending on what you mean: 恒, 久, 永恒. This page explains when each one is the right choice, and 永 itself lives in words such as 永远, 永久, 永恒.