道 (dào) means "way, path, road" with 12 strokes, radical 辶 (walk), HSK 1 on the new exam.
Pronunciation
Meaning
Primary: way
Other meanings:
- path
- road
Etymology
Oracle-bone origin
道 combines 辵 (walking, 辶) with 首 (head). Bronze inscriptions often show a person or a head positioned on or beside a road, and the earliest graphs appear to depict a person walking along a path. One traditional gloss reads the 首 as indicating the head leading the way; another reads it as phonetic. Oracle bone attestation is limited and the precise reading is debated.
Form evolution
Bronze forms show 行 (a crossroads) or 辵 with a 首 element inside or beside it. Seal script settled on the 辵 + 首 arrangement seen today. Clerical script reshaped 辵 into the 辶 enclosure and squared off 首 into its modern stacked form. The character was not simplified in the PRC reforms and is identical across mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
How the meaning evolved
The concrete original sense was road or path. It extended early to the metaphorical senses of method, doctrine, and the Way as a cosmic principle, a usage canonised in the Daodejing and the Confucian classics. It further extended to meaning to speak or say (as in 说道), to a unit of administrative division, and as a measure word for long thin objects like rivers or streams of light.
Cultural note
道 is the core term of Daoism (道家) and appears in the famous opening line of the Daodejing: 道可道,非常道 (the way that can be spoken is not the eternal way). In modern Japanese the same character reads michi or dō and appears in words like 柔道 judo and 書道 calligraphy, preserving the sense of a disciplined path.
Mnemonic
The head walks forward — the way, the path
Decomposition
Breaking a character into its components makes it far easier to recall. Each component above links to its own detail page.
Basic info
| Pinyin | dào |
| Meanings | way, path, road |
| Stroke count | 12 strokes |
| Radical | 辶 (#162: walk) |
| New HSK exam | Recognise at HSK 1 |
| Frequency | #32 most common |
Example sentences
Words containing 道
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning | HSK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 道 | dào | way, path | HSK 4 |
| 知道 | zhīdào | to know | HSK 1 |
| 街道 | jiēdào | Street | HSK 4 |
| 道歉 | dàoqiàn | apologize | HSK 4 |
| 难道 | nándào | could it be said that … | HSK 4 |
| 味道 | wèidào | taste | HSK 4 |
| 道理 | dàolǐ | truth | HSK 5 |
| 报道 | bàodào | report | HSK 5 |
| 打交道 | dǎjiāodao | Dealing with | HSK 6 |
| 道德 | dàodé | Morality | HSK 6 |
| 地道 | dìdao | tunnel | HSK 6 |
| 频道 | píndào | channel | HSK 6 |
| 霸道 | bàdào | overbearing, tyrannical | HSK 7-9 |
| 赤道 | chìdào | equator | HSK 7-9 |
| 大道 | dàdào | main road, highway |
Related characters
Similar meaning (abstract)
On the new HSK 1 exam
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Frequently Asked Questions
Reviewed by RJ Murray, Founder, HSK Lord.