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).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 氵 water13 strokesFrequency #2608氵 semantic舀 phonetic

Definitions

  1. (bound form) to inundate
  2. deluge
  3. torrent

Etymology & Origin

滔

pictophoneticwater

Decomposition: ⿰氵舀 (layout: left-right)

Components:氵semantic舀phonetic

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

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

WordPinyinMeaning
滔滔不绝tāo tāo bù jué(idiom) to produce a torrent of words
滔滔tāo tāotorrential
滔天大罪tāo tiān dà zuìheinous crime
罪恶滔天zuì è tāo tiān(idiom) to have committed heinous crimes
万恶滔天wàn è tāo tiān(idiom) the evil is overwhelming
滔天tāo tiān(of waves, anger, a disaster, a crime etc) towering
黄滔huáng tāoHuang Tao (840-911), late Tang poet
洪水滔滔hóng shuǐ tāo tāo(idiom) to have flooding over a vast area
8
Total compounds
50
As first character
13
As last character
38
As middle character

滔 appears in 8 compound words: 50 as the first character, 13 as the last, and 38 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.

逸yì
0.496924 co-occurrences
朱zhū
0.4361,302 co-occurrences
瀚hàn
0.420138 co-occurrences
绝jué
0.410606 co-occurrences
浪làng
0.391474 co-occurrences
搏bó
0.37778 co-occurrences
岂qǐ
0.36436 co-occurrences
洪hóng
0.358402 co-occurrences
罪zuì
0.358564 co-occurrences
潘pān
0.357246 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (3)

滔滔不绝tāotāobùjuéHSK 7+

endless; talking nineteen to the dozen

phrase
滔天大罪tāotiāndàzuìHSK 7+

towering crimes; heinous crime; atrocities

phrase
罪恶滔天zuì è tāo tiānHSK 7+

(idiom) to have committed heinous crimes

phrase

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

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.

東方日報Mar 2026

【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

Hk01.comFeb 2026

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...

Tatoeba

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

氵 Radical Family — Characters sharing the water radical

澳ào滨bīn濒bīn波bō沧cāng测cè潮cháo澈chè澄chéng池chí

Related Characters

水shuǐ汉hàn汽qì没méi洗xǐ渴kě永yǒng求qiú河hé油yóu

Homophones — Characters pronounced tāo

涛tāo掏tāo逃táo桃táo陶táo淘táo萄táo讨tǎo

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 滔 (tāo) mean in Chinese?
滔 (tāo) primarily means "(bound form) to inundate." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #2608 in character frequency.
What's the difference between 滔 and 蹈?
滔 (tāo) and 蹈 (dǎo) are often confused. confusable. The key distinguishing feature: 氵 vs 足 (same 舀 component).
How many strokes does 滔 have?
滔 is written with 13 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 滔?
The radical associated with 滔 is 氵 (water). This radical appears in many characters related to water.
What are the components of 滔?
滔 is composed of: 氵 (semantic), 舀 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰氵舀 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 滔?
Common words with 滔 include: 滔滔不绝 (tāo tāo bù jué, "(idiom) to produce a torrent of words"); 滔滔 (tāo tāo, "torrential"); 滔天大罪 (tāo tiān dà zuì, "heinous crime"); 罪恶滔天 (zuì è tāo tiān, "(idiom) to have committed heinous crimes"); 万恶滔天 (wàn è tāo tiān, "(idiom) the evil is overwhelming"). There are over 8 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 滔 (tāo)?
Several characters share the pronunciation tāo: 涛 (big wave), 掏 (to fish out (from pocket)), 逃 (to escape), 桃 (peach), and 4 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 滔 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 滔 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 滔 with real-time feedback

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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.