(dào): to steal, to rob, to plunder

(dào) is a Chinese character meaning “to steal.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (structural) and (structural). It ranks #1608 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to steal
  2. to rob
  3. to plunder

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
hǎi dàopirate
dào qièto steal
qiáng dàoto rob (with force)
dào zéirobber
tōu dàoto steal
dào yòngto use illegitimately
dào qǔto steal (including identity theft, credit card fraud or theft of computer account)
fáng dàoto guard against theft
dào mùto rob a tomb
dào bǎnpirated
jiān shǒu zì dàoto embezzle
yǎn ěr dào línglit. to cover one's ears whilst stealing a bell
dào hànnight sweats
fáng dào ménsecurity door
dào fěibandit
47
Total compounds
43
As first character
32
As last character
26
As middle character

appears in 47 compound words: 43 as the first character, 32 as the last, and 26 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 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

qiè
0.78719,280 co-occurrences
zéi
0.6718,874 co-occurrences
xiá
0.5272,220 co-occurrences
liè
0.5172,730 co-occurrences
lèi
0.47410,968 co-occurrences
àn
0.46211,586 co-occurrences
jué
0.4501,734 co-occurrences
guài
0.4463,300 co-occurrences
fěi
0.4441,152 co-occurrences
tōu
0.4432,088 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

jīmínggǒudàoHSK 7+

lowly skills; skills of little worth; people with lowly skills

phrase
jiānshǒuzìdàoHSK 7+

to steal money or property one guards; to embezzle

phrase
jiāngyángdàdàoHSK 7+

infamous pirate; (by extension) notorious bandit or robber

phrase
qīshìdàomíngHSK 7+

to deceive the public to amass fame

phrase
yǎn'ěrdàolíngHSK 7+

to fool oneself; to bury one's head in the sand

phrase
kāiményīdàoHSK 7+

to introduce bad people and bring disaster upon oneself

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

警方成功抓获了窃团伙,追回了被财物。

Jǐngfāng chénggōng zhuāhuò le dàoqiè tuánhuǒ, zhuīhuí le bèi dào cáiwù.

The police successfully captured the theft gang and recovered the stolen property.

It之家Mar 2026

...绍高薪工作、免费住宿为由,获取身份信息、刷银行卡存款

. . . shào gāo xīn gōng zuò , miǎn fèi zhù sù wéi yóu , huò qǔ shēn fèn xìn xī , dào shuā yín háng kǎ cún kuǎn

... Shao obtained identity information and stole bank card deposits on the grounds of high-paying work and free accommodation

NewsFeb 2026

...同竹联帮大哥狂发钓鱼诈骗简讯 107人遭刷450万

. . . tóng zhú lián bāng dà gē kuáng fā diào yú zhà piàn jiǎn xùn rén zāo dào shuā wàn

... The eldest brother of the Bamboo Union Gang sent a phishing scam text message 107 people were stolen and 4.5 million yuan was swiped

NewsFeb 2026

英国治安不靖 零售商协会:2025年店铺窃550万宗 损失42亿元

yīng guó zhì ān bù 靖 líng shòu shāng xié huì nián diàn pù dào qiè wàn zōng sǔn shī yì yuán

British law and order Retailers Association: 5.5 million store thefts in 2025 and loss of 4.2 billion yuan

NewsFeb 2026

朱古力成英国贼热门目标 商家祭出透明防盒应对

zhū gǔ lì chéng yīng guó dào zéi rè mén mù biāo shāng jiā jì chū tòu míng fáng dào hé yīng duì

Chocolate has become a popular target for British thieves, and merchants have offered transparent anti-theft boxes to respond

NewsFeb 2026

中AI三巨头遭爆取数据! Anthropic控用2.4万...

zhōng sān jù tóu zāo bào dào qǔ shǔ jù ! kòng yòng . wàn . . .

The Big Three of China AI were exposed to steal data! Anthropic controls 24,000...

Tatoeba

你喜欢版电影吗?

Nǐ xǐhuan dàobǎn diànyǐng ma?

Do you like pirate movies?

Tatoeba

把财宝藏进了地底。

Hǎidào bǎ cáibǎo cáng jìn le dìdǐ.

The pirates buried their treasure in the ground.

Tatoeba

似乎是在上层破窗而入的。

Qiáng dào sìhū shì zài shàngcéng pò chuāng ér rù de.

It seems that the burglar broke in through an upstairs window.

Tatoeba

他身上的钱全被强抢走了。

Tā shēnshang de qián quán bèi qiáng dào qiǎngzǒu le.

A mugger robbed him of all of his money.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced dào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 盗 (dào) mean in Chinese?
盗 (dào) primarily means "to steal." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1608 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 盗 have?
盗 is written with 11 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 盗?
The radical associated with 盗 is 皿 (dish). This radical appears in many characters related to dish.
What are the components of 盗?
盗 is composed of: 次 (structural), 皿 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱次皿 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 盗?
Common words with 盗 include: 海盗 (hǎi dào, "pirate"); 盗窃 (dào qiè, "to steal"); 强盗 (qiáng dào, "to rob (with force)"); 盗贼 (dào zéi, "robber"); 偷盗 (tōu dào, "to steal"). There are over 47 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 盗 (dào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dào: 刀 (knife), 叨 (garrulous), 导 (to transmit), 岛 (island), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 盗 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 盗 and the traditional form is 盜.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native 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.