漢字Kanji · in Tools & Weapons
刀: sword, saber
Also: knife
Oracle bone · Shang Bronze · Western Zhou Small seal · Qin Today
Oracle bone and bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Two readings, and the words that use each
トウtou · on'yomi · in compounds
- 刀剣とうけんswords
- 刀身とうしんsword blade
- 名刀めいとうfamous sword, excellent sword
- 短刀たんとうshort sword, dagger, dirk
- 日本刀にほんとうJapanese sword
かたなkatana · kun'yomi · on its own
- 刀かたなsword, blade
- 小刀こがたなsmall knife, short sword
Also read そり, with no example words in our sources. Words: Kanji alive, CC BY 4.0.
Where it comes from
Origin · sourced
Pictogram (象形)
A knife. The original form was 𠚣, which can be found in a variant of 利, 𥝢 (in turn used on the top of the character 黎).
Source: Wiktionary, 刀 (rev. 93753295), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Imagine the gleaming edge of a samurai's katana! This character captures the curve and the sharpness of a blade.”
Connections
刀 gives its sound to
The family reading is トウ (tou). Sound parts: KanjiVG.
Easy to confuse
The difference, side by sideIn ChineseSame character in simplified and traditional · dāo
Same form: 刀 is written the same way in mainland China (simplified) and in Taiwan and Hong Kong (traditional).
- Simplified
- 刀 mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional
- 刀 Taiwan, Hong Kong
Pinyin dāo most common reading
Forms and pinyin: Unicode Unihan database (Unicode License v3). Pinyin lists the most common reading, not every reading.