毒 (dú): poison, to poison, poisonous

毒 (dú) is a Chinese character meaning “poison.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 龶 (semantic) and 母 (phonetic). It ranks #947 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 毒 a poisonous plant. Its radical form 毋 (do not) appears in many related characters such as 母 (mǔ, mother), 每 (měi, each).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. poison
  2. to poison
  3. poisonous

Etymology & Origin

毒

pictophonetica poisonous plant

Decomposition: ⿱龶母 (layout: top-bottom)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 毒

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
病毒nounbìng dúvirus6
中毒verbzhòng dúto be poisoned6
消毒verbxiāo dúto disinfect6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
毒品noundú pǐndrugs
吸毒verbxī dúto take drugs
毒气noundú qìpoison gas
毒贩noundú fàndrug dealer
毒药noundú yàopoison
贩毒verbfàn dúto traffic narcotics
有毒adjectiveyǒu dúpoisonous
戒毒verbjiè dúto kick a drug habit
毒素noundú sùtoxin
毒瘾noundú yǐndrug addiction
毒蛇noundú shéviper
恶毒adjectiveè dúmalicious
下毒verbxià dúto put poison in sth
缉毒verbjī dúto counter narcotics trafficking
毒性noundú xìngtoxicity
103
Total compounds
42
As first character
48
As last character
11
As middle character

毒 appears in 103 compound words: 42 as the first character, 48 as the last, and 11 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 毒 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

病bìng
0.64485,436 co-occurrences
贩fàn
0.5442,467 co-occurrences
氯lǜ
0.52710 co-occurrences
冠guàn
0.51320,424 co-occurrences
蛇shé
0.5074,864 co-occurrences
状zhuàng
0.4988,928 co-occurrences
肺fèi
0.4943,270 co-occurrences
炎yán
0.4834,456 co-occurrences
染rǎn
0.4677,595 co-occurrences
狠hěn
0.465840 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (7)

艾滋病毒àizī bìngdúHSK 7+

HIV (virus)

noun
病毒感染bìng dú gǎn rǎnHSK 6+

viral infection

phrase
防毒面具fángdú miànjùHSK 6+

gas mask

noun
肉毒杆菌ròudúgǎnjūnHSK 7+

Clostridium botulinum

noun
食物中毒shí wù zhòng dúHSK 6+

food poisoning

phrase
屠毒笔墨tú dú bǐ mòHSK 7+

poisonous writing; disparaging writing; calumny

phrase
以毒攻毒yǐdúgōngdúHSK 6+

to fight fire with fire

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了毒字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le dú zì de xiáng xì xiè shì .

I looked up the detailed explanation of the character "毒" in the dictionary.

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

荣誉观护人提供曾经毒贩第二人生 获厨艺大奖肯定

róng yù guàn hù rén tí gōng céng jīng dú fàn dì èr rén shēng huò chú yì dà jiǎng kěn dìng

Honorary Guardian Provided Second Life of a former drug dealer and was recognized by the Cooking Award

It之家Feb 2026

...家针对全球 95% 人口感染的 EB 病毒取得关键突破,为移植患者带来新希望

. . . jiā zhēn duì quán qiú 9 5 rén kǒu gǎn rǎn de E B bìng dú qǔ dé guān jiàn tū pò , wéi yí zhí huàn zhě dài lái xīn xī wàng

... A key breakthrough in the fight against Epstein-Barr virus, which infects 95% of the world's population, brings new hope to transplant patients

English News - RthkFeb 2026

落马洲5只狗疑中毒亡警方列“残酷对待动物”跟进

luò mǎ zhōu 5 zhī gǒu yí zhōng dú wáng jǐng fāng liè cán kù duì dài dòng wù gēn jìn

5 dogs in Lok Ma Chau were suspected of being poisoned and died, and the police listed "cruelty to animals" to follow up

BastillepostFeb 2026

落马洲5地盘狗只疑中毒连环死亡 警列“残酷对待动物”调查未有人...

luò mǎ zhōu 5 dì pán gǒu zhī yí zhōng dú lián huán sǐ wáng jǐng liè cán kù duì dài dòng wù diào chá wèi yǒu rén . . .

Dogs suspected of being poisoned and killed in a series of deaths at 5 sites in Lok Ma Chau Police "cruelty to animals" investigation No one has been found...

東方日報Feb 2026

落马洲7日5狗疑中毒亡 列虐畜跟进狗尸将化验

luò mǎ zhōu 7 rì 5 gǒu yí zhōng dú wáng liè nüè chù gēn jìn gǒu shī jiāng huà yàn

5 dogs suspected of poisoning and died in Lok Ma Chau on the 7th, and the dog corpse will be tested for animal cruelty

Tatoeba

毋庸置疑,汤姆毒害了玛丽。

Wúyōngzhìyí, Tāngmǔ dúhài le Mǎlì.

There's no doubt Tom poisoned Mary.

Tatoeba

美国的罪犯大多是吸毒成瘾的瘾君子。

Měiguó de zuìfàn dàduō shì xīdúchéngyǐn de yǐnjūnzǐ.

Many criminals in America are addicted to drugs.

Tatoeba

矛尖浸在一种致命的毒药里。

Máo jiān jìn zài yīzhǒng zhìmìng de dúyào lǐ.

The tip of the spear was dipped in a deadly poison.

Tatoeba

您曾经食物中毒过吗?

Nín céngjīng shíwùzhòngdú guo ma?

Have you ever had food poisoning?

Character Family

毋 Radical Family — Characters sharing the do not radical

Related Characters

Homophones — Characters pronounced dú

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 毒 (dú) mean in Chinese?
毒 (dú) primarily means "poison." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #947 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 毒 and 姆?
毒 (dú) and 姆 (mǔ) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 毋 vs 女 (same 母 component).
How many strokes does 毒 have?
毒 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 毒?
The radical associated with 毒 is 毋 (do not). This radical appears in many characters related to do not.
What are the components of 毒?
毒 is composed of: 龶 (semantic), 母 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿱龶母 with a top-bottom layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 毒?
Common words with 毒 include: 毒品 (dú pǐn, "drugs"); 病毒 (bìng dú, "virus"); 吸毒 (xī dú, "to take drugs"); 毒气 (dú qì, "poison gas"); 毒贩 (dú fàn, "drug dealer"). There are over 103 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 毒 (dú)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dú: 度 (degree, to measure), 独 (alone), 读 (to read), 督 ((bound form) to supervise), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 毒 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 毒 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 毒 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.