渡 (dù): to cross, to pass through, to ferry

渡 (dù) is a Chinese character meaning “to cross.” Classified as HSK Level 6 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 度 (phonetic). It ranks #1398 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 渡 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to cross
  2. to pass through
  3. to ferry

Etymology & Origin

渡

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵度 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

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

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

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 渡

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
过渡verbguò dùto cross over (by ferry)6

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
渡过verbdù guòto cross over
偷渡nountōu dùillegal immigration
渡轮noundù lúnferry boat
引渡verbyǐn dùto extradite
渡船noundù chuánferry
渡口noundù kǒuferry crossing
轮渡verblún dùferry
偷渡者tōu dù zhěsmuggled illegal alien
摆渡verbbǎi dùferry
横渡verbhéng dùto cross (a body of water)
远渡重洋phraseyuǎn dù chóng yángto travel across the oceans
渡边proper-noundù biānWatanabe (Japanese surname)
暗渡陈仓phraseàn dù chén cānglit. secretly crossing the Wei River 渭河 at Chencang (idiom, refers to a stratagem used by Liu Bang 劉邦|刘邦[Li...
渡鸦noundù yā(bird species of China) common raven (Corvus corax)
普渡verbpǔ dù(Buddhism, Daoism) to deliver all sentient beings from suffering
49
Total compounds
29
As first character
35
As last character
37
As middle character

渡 appears in 49 compound words: 29 as the first character, 35 as the last, and 37 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 渡 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

轮lún
0.5006,748 co-occurrences
过guò
0.49719,352 co-occurrences
偷tōu
0.4934,594 co-occurrences
摆bǎi
0.4911,414 co-occurrences
河hé
0.44410,778 co-occurrences
船chuán
0.4124,596 co-occurrences
假jiǎ
0.4043,590 co-occurrences
江jiāng
0.4037,066 co-occurrences
麻má
0.3941,896 co-occurrences
执zhí
0.39311 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (6)

暗渡陈仓àndùchéncāngHSK 7+

short for 明修棧道,暗渡陳倉/明修栈道,暗渡陈仓 (míngxiūzhàndào, àndùchéncāng, “to do one thing under cover of another”)

phrase
过渡金属guòdù jīnshǔHSK 6+

transition metal; transition element

noun
过渡时期guò dù shí qīHSK 6+

transition period

phrase
远渡重洋yuǎndùchóngyángHSK 6+

to travel across the ocean

phrase
中元普渡zhōng yuán pǔ dùHSK 6+

Ghosts' festival on 15th day of 7th moon

phrase

Showing 5 of 6 idioms containing 渡.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

这条渡流经三个省份,滋养了沿岸的农田。

zhè tiáo dù liú jīng sān gě shěng fèn , zī yǎng le yán àn de nóng tián .

This river flows through three provinces, nourishing the farmlands along its banks.

Orientaldaily MyMar 2026

诱骗同乡偷渡来马劳动剥削 移民局捕4孟加拉男

yòu piàn tóng xiāng tōu dù lái mǎ láo dòng bāo xiāo yí mín jú bǔ 4 mèng jiā lā nán

Deceiving fellow villagers to smuggle into Malaysia for labor exploitation, the immigration bureau arrested 4 Bangladeshi men

StheadlineMar 2026

...起的士需提供电子支付 业界冀初期执法设过渡期 口头警告代替即时票控

. . . qǐ de shì xū tí gōng diàn zǐ zhī fù yè jiè 冀 chū qī zhí fǎ shè guò dù qī kǒu tóu jǐng gào dài tì jí shí piào kòng

... Taxis need to provide electronic payment, and the industry hopes that there will be a transitional period for law enforcement in the early stage, and verbal warnings will replace instant ticket control

Intimes NewsFeb 2026

菲律宾渡轮沉没增至65人死 14人下落不明

菲 lǜ bīn dù lún chén méi zēng zhì 6 5 rén sǐ 1 4 rén xià luò bù míng

The sinking of a ferry in the Philippines has risen to 65 dead and 14 people are missing

Investing 香港Feb 2026

电商转型对软体/AI过渡的启示

diàn shāng zhuǎn xíng duì ruǎn tǐ A I guò dù de qǐ shì

The enlightenment of e-commerce transformation on software/AI transition

Tatoeba

我们在夏威夷渡过了圣诞。

Wǒmen zài Xiàwēiyí dùguò le Shèngdàn.

We stayed in Hawaii over Christmas.

Tatoeba

他用30天横渡了太平洋。

Tāyòng 30 tiān héngdù le Tàipíng Yáng.

He crossed the Pacific Ocean in thirty days.

Tatoeba

我想和你共渡余生。

Wǒ xiǎng hé nǐ gòng dù yú shēng.

I want to spend my life with you.

Tatoeba

渡轮上的乘客不多于一百人。

Dùlún shàng de chéngkè bù duōyú yī bǎi rén.

There were not more than one hundred passengers on board the ferry.

Tatoeba

我见过狗游泳渡河。

Wǒ jiàn guo gǒu yóuyǒng dù hé.

I saw a dog swim across the river.

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component

Homophones — Characters pronounced dù

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 渡 (dù) mean in Chinese?
渡 (dù) primarily means "to cross." It is classified as HSK Level 6, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1398 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 渡 have?
渡 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 渡?
The radical associated with 渡 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 渡?
渡 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 度 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵度 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 渡?
Common words with 渡 include: 渡过 (dù guò, "to cross over"); 过渡 (guò dù, "to cross over (by ferry)"); 偷渡 (tōu dù, "illegal immigration"); 渡轮 (dù lún, "ferry boat"); 引渡 (yǐn dù, "to extradite"). There are over 49 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 渡 (dù)?
Several characters share the pronunciation dù: 度 (degree, to measure), 独 (alone), 读 (to read), 毒 (poison), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 渡 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 渡 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 渡 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.