殆 (dài): (literary) dangerous, perilous, (literary) almost, well-nigh

殆 (dài) is a Chinese character meaning “(literary) dangerous.” Outside the HSK 3.0 syllabus (CLEC 2022), it is composed of 歹 (semantic) and 台 (phonetic). It ranks #3339 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 殆 death. Its radical form 歹 (death) appears in many related characters such as 死 (sǐ, to die), 殊 (shū, (literary) to kill), 残 (cán, to destroy).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. (literary) dangerous
  2. perilous
  3. (literary) almost
  4. well-nigh

Etymology & Origin

殆

pictophoneticdeath

Decomposition: ⿰歹台 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
殆尽adjectivedài jìnalmost exhausted
百战不殆bǎi zhàn bù dàito come unscathed through a hundred battles (idiom, from Sunzi's "The Art of War" 孫子兵法|孙子兵法)
危殆adjectivewēi dàigrave danger
学而不思则罔,思而不学则殆xué ér bù sī zé wǎng , sī ér bù xué zé dàiTo learn without thinking is confusing, to think without learning is dangerous (Confucius)
知彼知己,百战不殆zhī bǐ zhī jǐ , bǎi zhàn bù dàiknowing the enemy and yourself will get you unscathed through a hundred battles (idiom, from Sunzi's "The Art of War")
知己知彼,百战不殆zhī jǐ zhī bǐ , bǎi zhàn bù dàiknow yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated (idiom, from Sunzi's "The Art of War" 孫子兵法|孙子兵法[Sun...
丧失殆尽sàng shī dài jìnto be used up
7
Total compounds
14
As first character
71
As last character
14
As middle character

殆 appears in 7 compound words: 14 as the first character, 71 as the last, and 14 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

少数派Aug 2026

告别与新生 前文谈到,繁重的课业让我的精力消耗殆尽。

gào bié yǔ xīn shēng qián wén tán dào , fán chóng de kè yè ràng wǒ de jīng lì xiāo hào dài jǐn .

Farewell and New Beginnings: As mentioned earlier, my heavy course load left me completely drained.

少数派Jul 2026

这样的收听模式也让那种原始的“惊喜感”丧失殆尽。

zhè yàng de shōu tīng mó shì yě ràng nà zhǒng yuán shǐ de jīng xǐ gǎn sāng shī dài jǐn .

This way of listening also completely strips away that original “sense of surprise.”

少数派Jun 2026

青春年少的意气风发不再,仰慕与爱情也被生活消磨殆尽。

qīng chūn nián shǎo de yì qì fēng fā bù zài , yǎng mù yǔ ài qíng yě bèi shēng huó xiāo mó dài jǐn .

The youthful vigor of my younger days is gone, and admiration and love have been worn away by the grind of daily life.

奇客SolidotMay 2026

天然森林遭到大面积砍伐,东京、大阪和神户等城市周围山林被砍伐殆尽。

tiān rán sēn lín zāo dào dà miàn jī kǎn fá , dōng jīng , dà 阪 hé shén hù děng chéng shì zhōu wéi shān lín bèi kǎn fá dài jǐn .

Large swaths of natural forest have been cleared, and the mountains and forests surrounding cities such as Tokyo, Osaka, and Kobe have been almost entirely cut down.

爱范儿May 2026

视频占用空间多不说,创作热情通常也在流程反复中消磨殆尽了。

shì pín zhàn yòng kōng jiān duō bù shuō , chuàng zuò rè qíng tōng cháng yě zài liú chéng fǎn fù zhōng xiāo mó dài jǐn le .

Not only do videos take up a lot of storage space, but the creative enthusiasm is usually worn down by the repetitive process.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 歹 (death) component

歹 Radical Family — Characters sharing the death radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced dài

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 殆 (dài) mean in Chinese?
殆 (dài) primarily means "(literary) dangerous." It is not part of the HSK 3.0 syllabus. It ranks #3339 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 殆 and 始?
殆 (dài) and 始 (shǐ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 歹 vs 女 (same 台 component).
How many strokes does 殆 have?
殆 is written with 9 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 殆?
The radical associated with 殆 is 歹 (death). This radical appears in many characters related to death.
What are the components of 殆?
殆 is composed of: 歹 (semantic), 台 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰歹台 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 殆?
Common words with 殆 include: 殆尽 (dài jìn, "almost exhausted"); 百战不殆 (bǎi zhàn bù dài, "to come unscathed through a hundred battles (idiom, from Sunzi's "The Art of War" 孫子兵法|孙子兵法)"); 危殆 (wēi dài, "grave danger"); 学而不思则罔,思而不学则殆 (xué ér bù sī zé wǎng , sī ér bù xué zé dài, "To learn without thinking is confusing, to think without learning is dangerous (Confucius)"); 知彼知己,百战不殆 (zhī bǐ zhī jǐ , bǎi zhàn bù dài, "knowing the enemy and yourself will get you unscathed through a hundred battles (idiom, from Sunzi's "The Art of War")"). There are over 7 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 殆 (dài)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dài: 怠 (idle). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 殆 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 殆 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 殆 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.