滔 (tāo): (bound form) to inundate, deluge, torrent
滔 (tāo) is a Chinese character meaning “(bound form) to inundate.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 氵 (semantic) and 舀 (phonetic). It ranks #2608 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).
Etymologically derived, 滔 water. Its radical form 氵 (water) appears in many related characters such as 水 (shuǐ, water), 汉 (hàn, Han ethnic group), 汽 (qì, steam).
Definitions
- (bound form) to inundate
- deluge
- torrent
Etymology & Origin
Stroke Order
Practice writing 滔 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.
Words & Compounds
Common Compounds
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 滔滔不绝phrase | tāo tāo bù jué | (idiom) to produce a torrent of words |
| 滔滔adjective | tāo tāo | torrential |
| 滔天大罪phrase | tāo tiān dà zuì | heinous crime |
| 罪恶滔天 | zuì è tāo tiān | (idiom) to have committed heinous crimes |
| 滔天adjective | tāo tiān | (of waves, anger, a disaster, a crime etc) towering |
| 黄滔 | huáng tāo | Huang Tao (840-911), late Tang poet |
| 洪水滔滔 | hóng shuǐ tāo tāo | (idiom) to have flooding over a vast area |
滔 appears in 7 compound words: 57 as the first character, 14 as the last, and 29 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 滔 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.
Idioms & Chengyu (3)
Example Sentences
清晨的滔面波光粼粼，倒映着岸边的柳树。
qīng chén de tāo miàn bō guāng 粼 粼 , dǎo yìng zhe àn biān de liǔ shù .
The early morning water shimmered with ripples, reflecting the willow trees along the shore.
人口老龄化 在降本增效的滔天巨浪下，人类专业知识的传承遭遇前所未有的危机。
rén kǒu lǎo líng huà zài jiàng běn zēng xiào de tāo tiān jù làng xià , rén lèi zhuān yè zhī shí de chuán chéng zāo yù qián suǒ wèi yǒu de wēi jī .
An Aging Population: Amid the overwhelming tide of cost-cutting and efficiency improvements, the transmission of human expertise faces an unprecedented crisis.
【摩通轮证】市场关注建滔集团AI相关业务发展
mó tōng lún zhèng shì chǎng guān zhù jiàn tāo jí tuán A I xiāng guān yè wù fā zhǎn
[JPMorgan Warrants] Market Focus on the Development of Jianhu Group’s AI-Related Businesses
建滔孖宝飙逾半成 日前发盈喜 恒生指数现跌逾...
jiàn tāo 孖 bǎo biāo yú bàn chéng rì qián fā yíng xǐ héng shēng zhǐ shǔ xiàn diē yú . . .
Kingboard Twin Treasure soared by more than half a few days ago, and the Hang Seng Index is now falling more than...
山坡让滔滔的洪水往西流
Shānpō ràng tāotāo de hóngshuǐ wǎng xī liú
The hillside had torrential flooding from the west.
Character Family
Semantic Family — Characters sharing the 氵 (water) component
Frequently Asked Questions
What does 滔 (tāo) mean in Chinese?
What's the difference between 滔 and 蹈?
How many strokes does 滔 have?
What is the radical of 滔?
What are the components of 滔?
What are common words containing 滔?
What characters sound the same as 滔 (tāo)?
Is 滔 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Practice writing 滔 with real-time feedback
Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.