dāo

knife

Pictograph of a knife.

Evolution

刀 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
刀 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
刀 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
刀 Clerical script Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)
刀 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

dāo

knife; old coin; measure; blade; single-edged sword; cutlass; CL:[bǎ]; (slang) dollar (loanword); classifier for sets of one hundred sheets (of paper); classifier for knife cuts or stabs

 

Dāo

surname Dao

Most common words with 刀
Freq.
Word
Meaning

knife

剪刀

scissors

刀子

knife

菜刀

vegetable knife

小刀

knife

Component uses

Meaning component in 7 characters (2 verified)

Sound component in 3 characters (1 verified)

Iconic component in 10 characters (10 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*C.tˤaw

taw

dāo

knife


Statistics

HSK level 3

Appears in 31.1709% of movies

985th most common character in movies

1067th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

2

Unicode

U+5200

Shuowen

“刀,兵也。象形。”


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