(dào): paddy, rice (Oryza sativa)

(dào) is a Chinese character meaning “paddy.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #2438 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, grain. Its radical form (grain) appears in many related characters such as (qiū, autumn), (, branch of study), (, to hire).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. paddy
  2. rice (Oryza sativa)

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticgrain

Decomposition: ⿰禾舀 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
nounshuǐ dàorice6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
dào cǎorice straw
dào cǎo rénscarecrow
dào tiánpaddy field
dào mǐrice (crop)
dào gǔunhusked rice
dào suìrice ear
dào zirice (crop)
zǎo dàoearly season rice
yā sǐ luò tuo de zuì hòu yī gēn dào cǎothe straw that broke the camel’s back (idiom)
zǎo dào tián dà xuéWaseda University (private university in Tokyo)
zài shēng dàoratoon rice
jiù mìng dào cǎo(one's) last straw to clutch at
dào zuòrice cultivation
dào chéng xiànDaocheng county (Tibetan: 'dab pa rdzong) in Garze Tibetan autonomous prefecture 甘孜藏族自治州[Gan1 zi1 Zang4 zu2 zi4 zhi4 ...
dào chéngDaocheng county (Tibetan: 'dab pa rdzong) in Garze Tibetan autonomous prefecture 甘孜藏族自治州[Gan1 zi1 Zang4 zu2 zi4 zhi4 ...
28
Total compounds
61
As first character
25
As last character
14
As middle character

appears in 28 compound words: 61 as the first character, 25 as the last, and 14 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.

0.4966,954 co-occurrences
cǎo
0.49010,050 co-occurrences
tián
0.48919,530 co-occurrences
bèng
0.459420 co-occurrences
shuǐ
0.43216,062 co-occurrences
zǎo
0.4197,675 co-occurrences
zhí
0.4174,086 co-occurrences
huǎng
0.407654 co-occurrences
zāi
0.401798 co-occurrences
shǔ
0.3991,218 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

dào zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ jiào dī .

The character "稻" is not frequently used in everyday life.

光明网_新闻视野、文化视角、思想深度、理论高度Mar 2026

中国专家助力布隆迪水增产

zhōng guó zhuān jiā zhù lì bù lóng dí shuǐ dào zēng chǎn

Investing 香港Mar 2026

香控股(00573)发布年度业绩,股东应...

dào xiāng kòng gǔ ( 0 0 5 7 3 ) fā bù nián dù yè jì , gǔ dōng yīng . . .

Daoxiang Holdings (00573) has released its annual results; net profit attributable to shareholders...

UdnnewsindexMar 2026

...用年年插秧就能连续收获?大陆找到“长寿水”基因 登国际期刊

. . . yòng nián nián chā yāng jiù néng lián xù shōu huò ? dà lù zhǎo dào cháng shòu shuǐ dào jī yīn dēng guó jì qī kān

...Can continuous harvests be achieved by planting rice year after year? Mainland China identifies "long-lived rice" gene; findings published in international journal

StheadlineFeb 2026

香集团酒楼饮茶优惠!指定点心一律计小点 ...

dào xiāng jí tuán jiǔ lóu yǐn chá yōu huì ! zhǐ dìng diǎn xīn yī lǜ jì xiǎo diǎn . . .

Daoxiang Group Restaurant Tea Drinking Discount! Designated snacks are all counted as small ...

Tatoeba

海啸席卷田, 淹没了城镇。

Hǎixiào xíjuǎn dàotián, yānmò le chéngzhèn.

Tsunamis swept through rice fields and flooded the towns.

Tatoeba

预期今年米会丰收。

Yùqī jīnnián dàomǐ huì fēngshōu.

This year promises a good harvest of rice.

Tatoeba

穗越饱满越低头。

Dàosuì yuè bǎomǎn yuè dītóu.

The boughs that bear most hang lowest.

Tatoeba

米生长在温暖的国家。

Dàomǐ shēngzhǎng zài wēnnuǎn de guójiā.

Rice grows in warm countries.

Tatoeba

人们在多雨地区种植水

Rénmen zài duō yǔ dìqū zhòngzhí shuǐdào.

Rice is grown in rainy regions.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced dào

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 稻 (dào) mean in Chinese?
稻 (dào) primarily means "paddy." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #2438 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 稻 and 滔?
稻 (dào) and 滔 (tāo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 禾 vs 氵 (same 舀 component).
How many strokes does 稻 have?
稻 is written with 15 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 稻?
The radical associated with 稻 is 禾 (grain). This radical appears in many characters related to grain.
What are the components of 稻?
稻 is composed of: 禾 (semantic), 舀 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰禾舀 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 稻?
Common words with 稻 include: 稻草 (dào cǎo, "rice straw"); 稻草人 (dào cǎo rén, "scarecrow"); 稻田 (dào tián, "paddy field"); 稻米 (dào mǐ, "rice (crop)"); 稻谷 (dào gǔ, "unhusked rice"). There are over 28 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 稻 (dào)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dào: 蹈 (to dance, to tread), 刀 (knife), 叨 (garrulous), 导 (to transmit), and 5 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 稻 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 稻 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.