韬 (tāo): bow case or scabbard, to hide

韬 (tāo) is a Chinese character meaning “bow case or scabbard.” Classified as HSK Level 7-9 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), with radical 韦 (soft leather). It ranks #5334 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Native pronunciation
HSK 7-9Radical: 韦 soft leather14 strokesFrequency #5334

Definitions

  1. bow case or scabbard
  2. to hide

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

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

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
韬光养晦tāo guāng yǎng huìto conceal one's strengths and bide one's time (idiom)
六韬liù tāo“Six Secret Strategic Teachings”, one of the Seven Military Classics of ancient China 武經七書|武经七书[Wu3 jing1 Qi1 shu1], ...
六韬三略liù tāo sān lüè"Six Secret Strategic Teachings" 六韜|六韬[Liu4 tao1] and "Three Strategies of Huang Shigong" 三略[San1 lu:e4], two of the ...
龙韬lóng tāomilitary strategy and tactics
韬略tāo lüèmilitary strategy
邹韬奋zōu tāo fènZou Taofen (1895-1944), journalist, political theorist and publisher
秦韬玉qín tāo yùQin Taoyu, Tang poet, author of the poem "A Poor Woman" 貧女|贫女[Pin2 nu : 3]
7
Total compounds
29
As first character
29
As last character
43
As middle character

韬 appears in 7 compound words: 29 as the first character, 29 as the last, and 43 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

我在字典里查到了韬字的详细解释。

wǒ zài zì diǎn lǐ chá dào le tāo zì de xiáng xì jiě shì .

I looked up the detailed definition of the character "韬" in the dictionary.

中時新聞網Apr 2026

...百川》建立九二共识台湾方案的急迫性(韦伯韬)

. . . bǎi chuān jiàn lì jiǔ èr gòng shí tái wān fāng àn de jí pò xìng ( Wéi bó tāo )

The Beijing NewsApr 2026

...O新观察|IPO关键期遭索赔2500万:韬盛科技何去何从

. . . O xīn guàn chá I P O guān jiàn qī zāo suǒ péi 2 5 0 0 wàn : tāo shèng kē jì hé qù hé cóng

Character Family

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 韬 (tāo) mean in Chinese?
韬 (tāo) primarily means "bow case or scabbard." It is classified as HSK Level 7-9, making it an expert-level character. It ranks #5334 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 韬 have?
韬 is written with 14 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 韬?
The radical associated with 韬 is 韦 (soft leather). This radical appears in many characters related to soft leather.
What are common words containing 韬?
Common words with 韬 include: 韬光养晦 (tāo guāng yǎng huì, "to conceal one's strengths and bide one's time (idiom)"); 六韬 (liù tāo, "“Six Secret Strategic Teachings”, one of the Seven Military Classics of ancient China 武經七書|武经七书[Wu3 jing1 Qi1 shu1], ..."); 六韬三略 (liù tāo sān lüè, ""Six Secret Strategic Teachings" 六韜|六韬[Liu4 tao1] and "Three Strategies of Huang Shigong" 三略[San1 lu:e4], two of the ..."); 龙韬 (lóng tāo, "military strategy and tactics"); 韬略 (tāo lüè, "military strategy"). There are over 7 compound words containing this character.
Is 韬 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
No. The simplified form is 韬 and the traditional form is 韜.

Practice writing 韬 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.