Pinyin	dāo
Meaning	knife; single-edged sword
Radical	刀	繁體字	same

n/a

category: pictograph

structure: single

2stroke count

HSK 4

刀 (dāo) is a pictograph of a knife. In Chinese culture, swords that have one edge are also called 刀 (dāo), while those with two edges are 剑 (jiàn). Pay attention when putting the second stroke of this character; if it goes through the horizontal part of the first stroke, it becomes another character, 力 (lì) “power.”

Used as a component

When 刀 (dāo) is used as a component, it is usually semantic and signifies “knife” or “to part,” and it has three forms.

1. ⺈ (top)

The left falling stroke 丿 goes further to the left, and the hook is omitted, turning 刀 to ⺈.

2. 刂 (right)

刀 is usually written as刂 when it takes the right side of a character. However, sometimes this component simply becomes narrower, for example, 刀 in 切 (qiē) “to cut.”

3. 刀 (bottom and other)

The component doesn’t change significantly.

Used as a morpheme/word

刀 (dāo) usually represents a cutting tool as a morpheme.

How to pronounce

This character sounds like the connected d-ow of “sad owl.”