打 (dǎ): hit, make

打 (dǎ) is a Chinese character meaning “hit, make.” Classified as HSK Level 1 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 扌 (semantic) and 丁 (phonetic). It ranks #223 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 打 hand. Its radical form 扌 (hand) appears in many related characters such as 手 (shǒu, hand), 找 (zhǎo, to look for), 拿 (ná, to take, to hold).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. hit, make

Etymology & Origin

打

pictophonetichand

Decomposition: ⿰扌丁 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5

Practice writing 打 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 打

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
打电话verbdǎ diàn huàto make a telephone call1
打算verb/noundǎ suànto plan3
打开verbdǎ kāito open2
打扰verbdǎ rǎoto disturb4
打败verbdǎ bàito defeat4
打架verbdǎ jiàto fight6
打击verbdǎ jīto hit6
打扮verbdǎ banto decorate5
打断verbdǎ duànto interrupt5
打破verbdǎ pòto break5
打扫verbdǎ sǎoto clean3
打交道verbdǎ jiāo dàoto come into contact with6
打仗verbdǎ zhàngto fight a battle6
打动verbdǎ dòngto move (to pity)6
打包verbdǎ bāoto wrap5
打招呼verbdǎ zhāo huto greet sb by word or action4
打工verbdǎ gōngto work a temporary or casual job4
打听verbdǎ tingto ask about5
拨打verbbō dǎto call5
打印verbdǎ yìnto affix a seal4
打造verbdǎ zàoto forge (metal)6
打针verbdǎ zhēnto give or get an injection4
打折verbdǎ zhéto give a discount4
打车verbdǎ chēto take a taxi (in town)2
打印机noundǎ yìn jīprinter4
打卡verbdǎ kǎ(of an employee) to clock on (or off)6
打雷verbdǎ léito rumble with thunder6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
打赌verbdǎ dǔto bet
打球verbdǎ qiúto play ball
打搅verbdǎ jiǎoto disturb
打倒verbdǎ dǎoto overthrow
打住interjectiondǎ zhùto stop
打发verbdǎ fato dispatch sb to do sth
打猎verbdǎ lièto go hunting
打碎verbdǎ suìto shatter
打斗verbdǎ dòuto fight
苏打nounsū dá(loanword) soda
殴打verbōu dǎto beat up
115
Total compounds
79
As first character
17
As last character
3
As middle character

打 appears in 115 compound words: 79 as the first character, 17 as the last, and 3 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 打 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

混hùn
0.57350,792 co-occurrences
算suàn
0.56156,164 co-occurrences
男nán
0.53584,400 co-occurrences
子zǐ
0.525173,746 co-occurrences
破pò
0.52442,350 co-occurrences
捞lāo
0.5193,190 co-occurrences
双shuāng
0.49826,060 co-occurrences
女nǚ
0.47987,548 co-occurrences
殴ōu
0.4764,789 co-occurrences
倒dǎo
0.46214,102 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (55)

挨打受骂ái dǎ shòu màHSK 7+

to suffer beatings and receive abuse (idiom)

phrase
抱打不平bàodǎbùpíngHSK 4+

synonym of 打抱不平 (dǎbàobùpíng)

phrase
不打自招bùdǎzìzhāoHSK 4+

to confess without being pressed; to make a willing confession; to give oneself away

phrase
趁火打劫chènhuǒdǎjiéHSK 7+

to take advantage of chaos for one's own profit

phrase
趁热打铁chènrèdǎtiěHSK 6+

strike while the iron is hot

phrase
乘火打劫chénghuǒdǎjiéHSK 7+

to take advantage of another person's misfortune for personal gain

phrase
打抱不平dǎbàobùpíngHSK 4+

to take up the cudgels for the injured party; to defend somebody against an injustice

phrase
打草惊蛇dǎcǎojīngshéHSK 5+

to give away your position through rash actions; to alert someone of your presence unwittingly

phrase
打成一片dǎ chéng yī piànHSK 3+

(idiom) to become as one (with a particular group of people); to mix well; to bond

phrase
打道回府dǎdàohuífǔHSK 5+

to return home in a ceremonial procession (usually used in the imperative).; to return home.

phrase
打富济贫dǎ fù jì pínHSK 6+

to rob the rich to help the poor (idiom)

phrase
打家劫舍dǎjiājiéshèHSK 7+

to loot; to plunder

phrase

Showing 12 of 55 idioms containing 打.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

请打我手机联系我,办公室电话经常占线。

Qǐng dǎ wǒ shǒujī liánxì wǒ, bàngōngshì diànhuà jīngcháng zhànxiàn.

Please call my mobile to reach me; the office line is often busy.

百度新闻Feb 2026

黄金消费火热、春节不打烊,电商人一周三飞

huáng jīn xiāo fèi huǒ rè , chūn jié bù dǎ 烊 , diàn shāng rén yī zhōu sān fēi

Gold consumption is hot, the Spring Festival is not closed, and e-commerce people fly three times a week

百度新闻Feb 2026

春节不打烊,广州交投集团中欧班列预计发运9列、货...

chūn jié bù dǎ 烊 , guǎng zhōu jiāo tóu jí tuán zhōng ōu bān liè yù jì fā yùn liè huò . . .

The Spring Festival is not closed, Guangzhou Jiaotou Group is expected to send 9 trains, cargo ...

百度新闻Feb 2026

英国男子打砸香港机场 包中还搜出疑似管制药品

yīng guó nán zǐ dǎ zá xiāng gǎng jī chǎng bāo zhōng hái sōu chū yí shì guǎn zhì yào pǐn

British man vandalizes Hong Kong airport; suspected controlled substances found in his bag

百度新闻Feb 2026

福建福州打造新春文化消费新场景

fú jiàn fú zhōu dǎ zào xīn chūn wén huā xiāo fèi xīn chǎng jǐng

Fuzhou, Fujian Creates New Cultural Consumption Experiences for the Spring Festival

百度新闻Feb 2026

...人闹社火、品尝汉代美食,一起解锁新年最潮打..

. . . rén nào shè huǒ pǐn cháng hàn dài měi shí , yī qǐ xiè suǒ xīn nián zuì cháo dǎ . .

Join the festive celebrations, savor Han Dynasty cuisine, and unlock the trendiest New Year activities together.

Tatoeba

我出去的时候有人打我电话吗?

Wǒ chūqù de shíhou yǒurén dǎ wǒ diànhuà ma?

Did anyone call me while I was out?

Tatoeba

你打算在这个国家待多久?

Nǐ dǎsuàn zài zhège guójiā dāi duōjiǔ?

How long do you plan to stay in this country?

Tatoeba

我希望没打扰到你吧?

Wǒ xīwàng méi dǎrǎo dào nǐ ba?

I hope I'm not disturbing you.

Tatoeba

我可以打扰你一下吗?

Wǒ kěyǐ dǎrǎo nǐ yīxià ma?

May I bother you for a moment?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 扌 (hand) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced dǎ

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 打 (dǎ) mean in Chinese?
打 (dǎ) primarily means "hit, make." It is classified as HSK Level 1, making it a beginner-level character. It ranks #223 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 打 and 顶?
打 (dǎ) and 顶 (dǐng) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 扌 vs 页 (same 丁 component).
How many strokes does 打 have?
打 is written with 5 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 打?
The radical associated with 打 is 扌 (hand). This radical appears in many characters related to hand.
What are the components of 打?
打 is composed of: 扌 (semantic), 丁 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰扌丁 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 打?
Common words with 打 include: 打电话 (dǎ diàn huà, "to make a telephone call"); 打算 (dǎ suàn, "to plan"); 打开 (dǎ kāi, "to open"); 打扰 (dǎ rǎo, "to disturb"); 打赌 (dǎ dǔ, "to bet"). There are over 115 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 打 (dǎ)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dǎ: 大 (big), 达 (to attain), 答 (to answer). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 打 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 打 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 打 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.