dǎi

evil, bad

Original meaning: 

cracked wooden post

Variant of . Pictograph of a wooden post or digging tool with a cracked bottom. Similar to and . The meaning later shifted to "bad" and "evil".

Evolution

歹 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
歹 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
歹 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

dǎi

bad, vicious, depraved, wicked; bad; wicked; evil; Kangxi radical 78

Most common words with 歹
Freq.
Word
Meaning

歹徒

evildoer

好歹

good and bad

为非作歹

evildoer

bad

歹毒

vicious

Component uses

Meaning component in 27 characters (5 verified)

Sound component in 1 character (1 verified)

Iconic component in 2 characters (2 verified)

Unknown component in 1 character (0 verified)

Distinguishing component in 1 character (0 verified)

Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 3.6841% of movies

2687th most common character in movies

2905th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+6B79

Shuowen

“歹,骨之殘也。从半冎。讀若櫱岸之櫱。,古文歺。”


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