xiān hòu
successively; one after another
Practice writing with stroke order guidance, audio pronunciation, and interactive exercises in our mobile app.
Step-by-step stroke order animations
Native speaker audio pronunciation
Interactive writing recognition
他先后在北京和上海工作过。
Tā xiānhòu zài Běijīng hé Shànghǎi gōngzuòguò.
He has worked in Beijing and Shanghai.
这本书先后被翻译成多种语言。
Zhè běn shū xiānhòu bèi fānyì chéng duōzhǒng yǔyán.
This book has been translated into several languages.
他们先后到达了目的地。
Tāmen xiānhòu dàodálè mùdìdì.
They arrived at the destination one after another.
先后顺序 (xiān hòu shùn xù)
order of precedence
先后次序 (xiān hòu cì xù)
order of succession
先后 (xiānhòu)
afterwards
先后 (xiānhòu)
later
The Chinese word 先后 (xiān hòu) is composed of two characters: 先 (xiān), meaning "first" or "before", and 后 (hòu), meaning "after" or "later". Together, they form a compound word that means "before and after", "in order of precedence", or "in chronological order".The character 先 (xiān) is derived from the oracle bone script, which depicts a person standing in front of another person. This suggests that the original meaning of 先 was "to be in front" or "to lead". Over time, the meaning of 先 expanded to include "first" and "before".The character 后 (hòu) is also derived from the oracle bone script, which depicts a woman with a child on her back. This suggests that the original meaning of 后 was "mother". Over time, the meaning of 后 expanded to include "queen", "empress", and "later".The compound word 先后 (xiān hòu) is first recorded in the Shijing, a collection of ancient Chinese poems. In the Shijing, 先后 is used to refer to the order of precedence in the Zhou dynasty court.Today, 先后 is commonly used in Chinese to refer to the order of events or the order of precedence. For example, we can say 先后顺序 (xiān hòu shùn xù) to mean "the order of events" or 先后顺序 (xiān hòu shùn xù) to mean "the order of precedence".
