权衡

• Pinyin: quán héng
• Hanzi breakdown: 权 = 木 + 又 (weight/measure — originally a wooden steelyard weight); 衡 = 行 + 鱼 + 大 (balance — a beam scale)

Meaning

To weigh; to balance; to carefully consider the pros and cons of multiple options before making a decision.

权衡利弊 (weigh the pros and cons), 权衡得失 (weigh gains and losses). More deliberate and formal than 考虑. Implies a structured balancing process between competing factors. Common in governance, business strategy, and ethical reasoning.

Examples

1. 在做出最终投资决策之前，管理层对多个备选方案进行了长达数周的反复权衡与论证。 Before making the final investment decision, management spent weeks repeatedly weighing and evaluating multiple alternatives.
2. 政策制定者在推行改革时必须审慎权衡短期成本与长期收益之间的关系。 When advancing reforms, policymakers must carefully weigh the relationship between short-term costs and long-term benefits.
3. 他权衡再三，最终决定放弃高薪职位，选择回乡照顾年迈的父母。 After weighing it again and again, he ultimately decided to give up the high-paying job and return home to care for his elderly parents.

Usage Guide

Context: decision-making, policy, business strategy, ethics

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 在资源有限的条件下，项目团队必须不断权衡各项任务的优先级，以确保核心目标按时实现。(Under conditions of limited resources, the project team must continuously weigh the priority of each task to ensure core objectives are met on schedule.)
• 法官在量刑时需要综合权衡犯罪情节、社会影响以及被告人的悔罪态度等多方面因素。(When determining a sentence, a judge must comprehensively weigh factors including the circumstances of the offence, its social impact, and the defendant's attitude of remorse.)

Don't Say

• 我权衡了一下这道菜的味道 — use 品味 or 斟酌 for evaluating flavors; 权衡 is for deliberate rational trade-off decisions, not sensory judgments

Origin & History

权 (steelyard weight) + 衡 (balance beam) — to use scales to measure; to deliberate and balance competing factors

Cultural Context

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal