(dǎo): prayer, pray, supplication

(dǎo) is a Chinese character meaning “prayer.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and 寿 (phonetic). It ranks #2399 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, spirit. Its radical form (spirit) appears in many related characters such as (piào, ticket), (shì, (literary, or bound form) to look at), (shì, to show).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. prayer
  2. pray
  3. supplication

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticspirit

Decomposition: ⿰礻寿 (layout: left-right)

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
qí dǎoto pray
dǎo gàoto pray
dǎo wénlitany (text of a prayer)
mò dǎosilent prayer
zhǔ dǎo wénLord's Prayer
zuò dǎo gàoto pray
dài dǎoto pray on behalf of sb
dǎo niànto pray
wǎn dǎoevening prayer
bì huì qí dǎobenediction
qǐ yìng qí dǎoIntroitus (section of Catholic mass)
dǎo cílitany (text of a prayer)
chén dǎo(Anglican) matins
dǎo zhùto pray (for sth)
zhù dǎoto pray
16
Total compounds
31
As first character
56
As last character
13
As middle character

appears in 16 compound words: 31 as the first character, 56 as the last, and 13 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.

0.81320,400 co-occurrences
sòng
0.505408 co-occurrences
gào
0.4745,466 co-occurrences
0.403642 co-occurrences
guì
0.401126 co-occurrences
qián
0.391132 co-occurrences
hàn
0.388210 co-occurrences
sòng
0.374108 co-occurrences
shéng
0.372108 co-occurrences
yǒng
0.36978 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字虽然难写,但意思很有趣。

dǎo zì suī rán nán xiě , dàn yì sī hěn yǒu qù .

The character for "pray" may be difficult to write, but its meaning is quite interesting.

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Mar 2026

汶莱渣打银行以追思祈与社区服务迎接斋月

汶 莱 zhā dǎ yín háng yǐ zhuī sī qí dǎo yǔ shè qū fú wù yíng jiē 斋 yuè

Standard Chartered Bank Brunei Marks Ramadan with Reflection, Prayer, and Community Service

Tatoeba

他每天祈好几次。

Tā měitiān qídǎo hǎojǐ cì.

He prays several times a day.

Tatoeba

我们都跪了下来祈

Wǒmen dōu guì le xiàlai qídǎo.

We all knelt down to pray.

Tatoeba

我们全体为日本祈

Wǒmen quántǐ wèi Rìběn qídǎo.

We're all praying for Japan.

Tatoeba

今天是星期五,所以我们需要告。

Jīntiān shì Xīngqīwǔ, suǒyǐ wǒmen xūyào dǎogào.

It's Friday, and so we have to perform our prayers.

Tatoeba

他们跪了下来祈,希望战争快点结束。

Tāmen guì le xiàlai qídǎo, xīwàng zhànzhēng kuàidiǎn jiéshù.

They knelt down and prayed that the war would end soon.

Tatoeba

我正在我的房间里祈

Wǒ zhèngzài wǒ de fángjiān lǐ qídǎo.

I am praying in my room.

Tatoeba

大家来一起祈吧。

Dàjiā lái yīqǐ qídǎo ba.

Let's all pray together.

Tatoeba

我们一起祈这样的事别再发生了

Wǒmen yīqǐ qídǎo zhèyàng de shì bié zàifāshēng le

Let's just pray it never happens again.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced dǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 祷 (dǎo) mean in Chinese?
祷 (dǎo) primarily means "prayer." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2399 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 祷 and 畴?
祷 (dǎo) and 畴 (chóu) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 礻 vs 田 (same 寿 component).
How many strokes does 祷 have?
祷 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 祷?
The radical associated with 祷 is 礻 (spirit). This radical appears in many characters related to spirit.
What are the components of 祷?
祷 is composed of: 礻 (semantic), 寿 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰礻寿 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 祷?
Common words with 祷 include: 祈祷 (qí dǎo, "to pray"); 祷告 (dǎo gào, "to pray"); 祷文 (dǎo wén, "litany (text of a prayer)"); 默祷 (mò dǎo, "silent prayer"); 主祷文 (zhǔ dǎo wén, "Lord's Prayer"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 祷 (dǎo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dǎo: 刀 (knife), 叨 (garrulous), 导 (to transmit), 岛 (island), and 2 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 祷 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 祷 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

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.