(dǒng): director

(dǒng) is a Chinese character meaning “director.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1618 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, plant. Its radical form (grass) appears in many related characters such as (huā, flower), (chá, tea), (cài, vegetable, dish).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. director

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticplant

Decomposition: ⿱艹重 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

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

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
dǒng shì huìboard of directors
gǔ dǒngcurio
dǒng shìboard member
dǒng shì zhǎngchairman of the board of directors
gǔ dǒngvariant of 古董[gu3 dong3]
bù zhī dīng dǒngforgetting the fate of Ding and Dong (idiom)
lián xí dǒng shìassociate director
dǒng jiàn huáTung Chee-hwa (1937-), Hong Kong entrepreneur and politician, chief executive 1997-2005
dǒng bì wǔDong Biwu (1886-1975), one of the founders of the Chinese communist party
dǒng zuò(Tw) chairman (of a board of directors)
gǔ dǒng tānGudong desert or Antiques desert at Han dynasty Yangguan pass 陽關|阳关[Yang2 guan1], named after many Han dynasty archae...
dǒng yáng zīGrace Tong (Tong Yangtze) (1942-), Taiwanese calligrapher
dǒng jī(bird species of China) watercock (Gallicrex cinerea)
dǒng fèngDong Feng, doctor during Three Kingdoms period, famous for refusing fees and requesting that his patients plant apric...
dǒng zhòng shūDong Zhongshu (179-104 BC), philosopher influential in establishing Confucianism as the established system of values ...
16
Total compounds
69
As first character
19
As last character
13
As middle character

appears in 16 compound words: 69 as the first character, 19 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.

shì
0.663384,371 co-occurrences
zhuó
0.51214,694 co-occurrences
cháng
0.49374,736 co-occurrences
zuò
0.48717 co-occurrences
jiān
0.46322,338 co-occurrences
0.43448,990 co-occurrences
jiào
0.40428,686 co-occurrences
huì
0.40239,384 co-occurrences
zhí
0.3967,263 co-occurrences
rèn
0.39551,060 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (1)

bù zhī dīng dǒngHSK 7+

forgetting the fate of Ding and Dong (idiom); unheeding the lessons of the past

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

事长是公司的最高领导人。

Dǒngshìzhǎng shì gōngsī de zuìgāo lǐngdǎo rén.

The chairman is the highest leader of the company.

Investing 香港Feb 2026

MKS Inc事Cannone出售32.2萬美元股票

dǒng shì chū shòu . 萬 měi yuán gǔ piào

MKS Inc. Director Cannone Sells $322,000 Worth of Stock

Investing 香港Feb 2026

...stries任命Paul Maass加入事會

. . . rèn mìng jiā rù dǒng shì 會

Stries appoints Paul Maass to its board of directors

Investing 香港Feb 2026

Kirby Corp事Davis Barry E出售價值10...

dǒng shì chū shòu 價 zhí . . .

Davis Barry E, director of Kirby Corp, sold shares worth $10 million...

Investing 香港Feb 2026

Ceribell(CBLL)事Parvizi出售33.879萬美元股...

dǒng shì chū shòu . 萬 měi yuán gǔ . . .

Ceribell (CBLL) Director Parvizi sold shares worth $338,790...

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

聯發科座蔡明介:今年 AI 還是很熱 機會很多...

聯 發 kē dǒng zuò 蔡 míng jiè jīn nián 還 shì hěn 熱 機 會 hěn duō . . .

MediaTek Chairman Tsai Ming-kai: AI remains hot this year with plenty of opportunities...

EttodayFeb 2026

北市大安區醫美座開工中彈 槍手變裝+交替換車製造斷點逃...

běi shì dà ān 區 醫 měi dǒng zuò 開 gōng zhōng 彈 槍 shǒu 變 裝 jiāo tì 換 車 製 zào 斷 點 táo . . .

Chairman of Medical Aesthetics Firm Shot During Work in Taipei's Daan District Gunman Disguised, Used Alternating Vehicles to Create Disruptions During Escape...

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Feb 2026

...800万换取贷款申请 反贪会捕前电讯公司

. . . wàn huàn qǔ dài kuǎn shēn qǐng fǎn tān huì bǔ qián diàn xùn gōng sī dǒng shì

... ...8 million in exchange for loan applications Anti-Corruption Commission arrests ex-Telecom director

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

傾銷爭議 天聲事長張水圳曾硬槓美政府

傾 銷 爭 議 tiān 聲 dǒng shì 長 張 shuǐ 圳 céng yìng 槓 měi zhèng fǔ

Disputes over dumping Tian Sheng's chairman Zhang Shui-shen once leveraged the U.S. government.

Tatoeba

他偶然在古店里发现了这个旧硬币。

Tā ǒurán zài gǔdǒng diàn lǐ fāxiàn le zhège jiù yìngbì.

He came across this old coin in an antique shop.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced dǒng

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 董 (dǒng) mean in Chinese?
董 (dǒng) primarily means "director." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #1618 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 董 have?
董 is written with 12 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 董?
The radical associated with 董 is 艹 (grass). This radical appears in many characters related to grass.
What are the components of 董?
董 is composed of: 艹 (semantic), 重 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱艹重 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 董?
Common words with 董 include: 董事会 (dǒng shì huì, "board of directors"); 古董 (gǔ dǒng, "curio"); 董事 (dǒng shì, "board member"); 董事长 (dǒng shì zhǎng, "chairman of the board of directors"); 骨董 (gǔ dǒng, "variant of 古董[gu3 dong3]"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 董 (dǒng)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dǒng: 东 (east), 冬 (winter), 懂 (to understand), 动 ((of sth) to move), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 董 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 董 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.