舵 (duò): helm, rudder

舵 (duò) is a Chinese character meaning “helm.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 舟 (semantic) and 它 (phonetic). It ranks #2790 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 舵 boat. Its radical form 舟 (boat) appears in many related characters such as 般 (bān, sort), 船 (chuán, boat), 航 (háng, boat).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. helm
  2. rudder

Etymology & Origin

舵

pictophoneticboat

Decomposition: ⿰舟它 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
掌舵nounzhǎng duòto steer (a ship)
舵手nounduò shǒuhelmsman
把舵verbbǎ duòto hold the rudder
见风转舵phrasejiàn fēng zhuǎn duòlit. see the wind and set the helm (idiom)
见风使舵phrasejiàn fēng shǐ duòlit. see the wind and set the helm (idiom)
大舵手proper-noundà duò shǒuthe Great Helmsman (Mao Zedong)
随风倒舵suí fēng dǎo duòto trim one's sails with the wind
顺风转舵shùn fēng zhuǎn duòto act according to whatever is the current outlook
舵把duò bǎtiller of a boat
操舵室cāo duò shìpilothouse
满舵mǎn duòon full rudder
船舵nounchuán duòrudder
左舵adjectivezuǒ duòleft rudder
右舵adjectiveyòu duòright rudder
舵旁duò pánghelm (of a ship)
16
Total compounds
19
As first character
69
As last character
13
As middle character

舵 appears in 16 compound words: 19 as the first character, 69 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 舵 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

桨jiǎng
0.667868 co-occurrences
掌zhǎng
0.493919 co-occurrences
手shǒu
0.4572,822 co-occurrences
操cāo
0.445594 co-occurrences
单dān
0.420872 co-occurrences
丐gài
0.38222 co-occurrences
向xiàng
0.3821,134 co-occurrences
炊chuī
0.37612 co-occurrences
柄bǐng
0.36556 co-occurrences
尾wěi
0.363320 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (4)

见风转舵jiànfēngzhuǎnduòHSK 7+

to bend with the wind; to change one's position, attitude, behaviour, etc. depending on the situation

phrase
顺风转舵shùn fēng zhuǎn duòHSK 7+

to act according to whatever is the current outlook; pragmatic; unprincipled

phrase
随风倒舵suí fēng dǎo duòHSK 7+

to trim one's sails with the wind; to adopt different attitude depending on the circumstances (idiom)

phrase

Showing 3 of 4 idioms containing 舵.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

舵字在日常生活中使用频率较低。

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

The character "舵" is not commonly used in everyday life.

IT之家Aug 2026

此次续航升级覆盖所有采用左舵车型的欧洲市场。

cǐ cì xù háng shēng jí fù gài suǒ yǒu cǎi yòng zuǒ duò chē xíng de ōu zhōu shì chǎng .

This range upgrade applies to all left-hand-drive models in the European market.

中国新闻网·文化Jun 2026

中国香港着名演员梁朝伟“掌舵”主竞赛单元评选工作。

zhōng guó xiāng gǎng zhe míng yǎn yuán liáng cháo wěi zhǎng duò zhǔ jìng sài dān yuán píng xuǎn gōng zuò .

Renowned Hong Kong actor Tony Leung will “lead” the judging process for the Main Competition section.

IT之家May 2026

现任掌舵人莱特斯此前曾担任迈凯伦首席执行官。

xiàn rèn zhǎng duò rén lái tè sī cǐ qián céng dān rèn mài kǎi lún shǒu xí zhí háng guān .

The current leader, Lites, previously served as CEO of McLaren.

The Beijing NewsMar 2026

东风风行计划未来三到五年持续投放多款右舵专属车型

dōng fēng fēng háng jì huá wèi lái sān dào wǔ nián chí xù tóu fàng duō kuǎn yòu duò zhuān shǔ chē xíng

Dongfeng Fengxing plans to continue launching multiple right-hand-drive models over the next three to five years

马来西亚诗华日报新闻网Feb 2026

王展造:国盟换帅,伊党掌舵,绿意渐浓?

wáng zhǎn zào : guó méng huàn shuài , yī dǎng zhǎng duò , lǜ yì jiān nóng ?

Wang Zhanzao: The National League changed its commander, the Iraqi party took the helm, and the greenery gradually deepened?

Character Family

Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 舟 (boat) component

舟 Radical Family — Characters sharing the boat radical

Homophones — Characters pronounced duò

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 舵 (duò) mean in Chinese?
舵 (duò) primarily means "helm." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2790 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 舵 and 蛇?
舵 (duò) and 蛇 (shé) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 舟 vs 虫 (same 它 component).
How many strokes does 舵 have?
舵 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 舵?
The radical associated with 舵 is 舟 (boat). This radical appears in many characters related to boat.
What are the components of 舵?
舵 is composed of: 舟 (semantic), 它 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰舟它 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 舵?
Common words with 舵 include: 掌舵 (zhǎng duò, "to steer (a ship)"); 舵手 (duò shǒu, "helmsman"); 把舵 (bǎ duò, "to hold the rudder"); 见风转舵 (jiàn fēng zhuǎn duò, "lit. see the wind and set the helm (idiom)"); 见风使舵 (jiàn fēng shǐ duò, "lit. see the wind and set the helm (idiom)"). There are over 16 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 舵 (duò)?
Several characters share the pronunciation duò: 多 (many), 夺 (to seize), 躲 (to hide), 朵 (flower), and 3 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 舵 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 舵 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 舵 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.